GIFT    OF 
JANE  K.SATHBR 


JEFFERSON  DAVIS 
HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY 


JEFFERSON  DAVIS 
HIS  LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY 


BY 

MORRIS  SCHAFF 

AUTHOR    OF 

THE    SPIRIT   OF   OLD    WEST   POINT,    THE    BATTLE 
OF   THE    WILDERNESS,    THE   SUNSET 
OP  THE   CONFEDERACY 


BOSTON 
JOHN  W.  LUCE  AND   COMPANY 


Copyright,  1922 
BY  MORRIS  SCHAFF 


THE   MURRAY   PRINTING   COMPANY 
CAMBRIDGE,    MASS. 


To  My  Friends 

GENERAL  ELBERT  WHEELER,  Nashua,  New  Hampshire 

THOMAS  ALLEN,  ESQUIRE,  Boston,  Massachusetts 

MRS.  MARY  BEARING  CHRISTIAN,  Lynchburg,  Virginia 

ARTHUR  LORD,  ESQUIRE,  Plymouth,  Massachusetts 

and  last,  but  not  least, 

HONORABLE  HENRY  ST.  GEORGE  TUCKER,  Lexington,  Virginia 

this  book  is  dedicated 
as  a  token  of  attachment  and  esteem. 


544503 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER           I 1 

CHAPTER          II 17 

CHAPTER        III 29 

CHAPTER         IV 42 

CHAPTER          V 48 

CHAPTER         VI 61 

CHAPTER       VII 68 

CHAPTER     VIII 79 

CHAPTER        IX 86 

CHAPTER          X 93 

CHAPTER        XI 99 

CHAPTER       XII 107 

CHAPTER     XIII 120 

CHAPTER      XIV 125 

CHAPTER       XV 131 

CHAPTER      XVI 144 

CHAPTER    XVII 159 

CHAPTER  XVIII 166 

CHAPTER     XIX 185 

CHAPTER       XX 197 

CHAPTER     XXI 205 

CHAPTER    XXII 217 

CHAPTER  XXIII 229 

CHAPTER  XXIV                                          .     .  271 


JEFFERSON  DAVIS 
HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY 

CHAPTER  I 

THERE  are  two  reasons  for  undertaking  to  write 
this  book.  The  first  and  main  one  is  this:  a  longing 
to  see  justice  done,  so  far  as  my  pen  may  prevail, 
to  Jefferson  Davis,  President  of  the  ill-starred  South 
ern  Confederacy,  who,  I  feel  and  believe,  has  had 
unfair  treatment  by  the  historians  of  the  great  war 
between  the  States,  known  as  the  Southern  Rebellion, 
and  against  whose  armies  I  fought  on  many  fields, 
including  the  bloody  ones  of  Chancellorsville,  the 
Wilderness  and  Spotsylvania.  So  then,  it  is  not 
through  sympathy  with  the  cause  he  was  at  the 
head  of  that  I  take  up  my  pen;  no,  no,  but  at  the 
entreaty  of  two  mighty  advocates,  Truth  and  Fair 
Play.  I  am  cheered  on,  furthermore,  in  my  under 
taking  by  one  of  the  handsomest,  the  noblest  of  our 
country's  virtues,  Magnanimity,  proclaiming  that, 
out  of  hatred  and  revenge  to  perpetuate  a  false  and 
unjust  portrait  of  the  leader  of  the  Confederacy, 
the  sons  and  grandsons  of  whose  gallant  defenders 
helped  so  bravely  to  carry  their  united  country's 

l 


2  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

flag  to  victory  on  the  fields  of  France,  is  unworthy 
and  out  of  keeping  with  a  great-hearted  people. 

Moreover^  llefferson  Davis,  beside  being  leader  in 
the  most  unparalleled  struggle  of  modern  times  —  a 
struggle  commemorated  by  monuments,  ceremonial, 
and  poetry  that  deck  the  green  slopes  of  that  height 
called  History  —  was  in  manner  and  reality,  in 
private  and  public  life,  the  finest  product  of  a  democ 
racy;  namely,  a  gentleman.  The  world  has  had  many 
types  of  the  hero,  statesman  and  philosopher,  but 
only  one  in  its  conception  of  the  gentleman.^\Again, 
his  mind  was  not  only  stored  with  political,  scientific, 
and  historic  knowledge  but  ornamented  also  with 
the  ripened  fruits  and  beauties  of  literature;  and 
his  heart,  the  mind's  working  companion,  was 
naturally  bold  and  had  not  only  stood  the  dangers 
of  the  battlefield  but  was  strung  also  with  the 
finest  chords  of  sweet  tenderness. 

The  second  reason  is  the  silent,  personal  pleasure 
that  will  attend  the  use  of  my  pen  in  such  a  cause; 
not  arguing  or  contending,  but  talking  as  it  were 
to  an  open-minded  reader  who,  I  hope,  on  taking 
up  this  book,  is  blessed  with  a  light  heart;  but 
should  he  be  so  unfortunate  as  to  be  harassed  by 
cares  and  sorrows  will,  while  reading  it,  forget  them 
all  and  find  his  pillow  sweet. 

We  learn,  from  a  mere  fragment  of  an  autobiog 
raphy  dictated  a  few  years  before  Jefferson  Davis' 
death,  that  he  was  born  on  June  3,  1808,  at  Fair- 


HIS   LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  3 

view,  Todd  County,  Kentucky,  and  that  his  ances 
tors,  on  his  father's  side,  were  Welsh  Baptists  who 
one  May  morning,  1701,  in  a  company  of  twenty  of 
like  faith  "  after  bidding  farewell  to  their  home  and 
brethren"  —  so  says  an  old  Delaware  church  record 
-  sailed  from  Milford  Haven,  South  Wales,  on  the 
ship  James  and  Mary  and  landed  in  Philadelphia 
on  the  eighth  of  the  following  September. 

Once  at  the  end  of  their  long  voyage  they  made 
their  way  —  and  no  doubt  with  glad  hearts  —  to  a 
settlement  of  fellow  churchmen  in  Delaware,  and 
cast  their  lot  with  them.  In  1735,  the  Delaware 
Colony  swarmed  and  settled  on  the  Peedee  River, 
South  Carolina,  at  a  place  afterward  known  as  the 
Welsh  Neck  Baptist  Church.  About  1754  or  1755, 
Evan  Davis,  an  old  bachelor,  the  son  of  John,  one 
of  the  three  brothers  of  the  original  company 
from  Wales,  drifted  down  to  the  Peedee  and  there 
married  a  widow  Williams,  whose  maiden  name 
was  Emory,  with  two  children,  boys;  and  in  1756, 
Samuel,  Jefferson  Davis'  father,  was  born. 

Before  the  Revolutionary  War  broke  out  the 
family  had  moved  to  near  Augusta,  Georgia,  and 
the  head  of  it,  Evan  Davis,  had  died.  While  the 
war  was  going  on  his  widow  sent  Samuel  with  sup 
plies  to  his  two  half  brothers  who  were  in  the  field, 
and,  boy  like,  yielding  to  the  spirit  of  adventure, 
fondness  and  pride  in  their  gallantry,  he  stayed 
with  them.  Later  and  notwithstanding  his  youth, 


4  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

he  was  made  captain  of  a  company  and  led  it  to 
the  defense  of  Savannah  when  attacked  by  the 
British. 

After  the  war  was  over,  the  young  Captain  was 
elected  Clerk  of  the  Courts  and  then  fell  in  love 
with  and  married  Jane  Cook,  the  mother  of  Jefferson 
Davis.  She  was  the  daughter  of  a  famously  eloquent 
Scotch-Irish  Baptist  preacher,  and  Mr.  Davis  in  his 
fragmentary  autobiography  says  in  loving  terms 
that  she  had  a  poetic  nature,  the  source  perchance 
of  many  a  charm  which  graces  the  speeches  and 
addresses  of  her  distinguished  son. 

Here  then  in  Jefferson  Davis'  veins  we  have  a 
mingling  of  Welsh  and  Scotch  blood  carrying  the 
roots  and  seeds  of  their  racial  virtues  and  character 
istics,  chief  of  which  has  ever  been  a  grim  tenacity 
of  convictions  and  a  prompt  readiness  to  risk  all, 
and  if  need  be  to  lose  all  in  their  defense.  Davis' 
blood  fairly  teemed  with  this  ancestral  character 
istic  and  we  are  quite  sure  he  would  have  been  spared 
many  a  trial,  many  a  poignant  hour  if,  when  his 
wounds  were  bleeding  on  the  field  of  Buena  Vista 
in  the  Mexican  War,  the  veins  that  carried  a  possible 
excess  of  this  too  defiant  blood  had  been  somewhat 
more  completely  emptied. 

But  let  all  this  be  as  it  may,  the  voice  of  Ken 
tucky,  with  its  ever  wild  fascination  for  the  frontiers 
man,  was  heard  in  Georgia  by  the  young  Captain 
and  his  wife  Jane,  and  about  1790,  with  their  rapidly 


HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY  5 

increasing  family,  they  started  through  the  wilder 
ness  for  Tennessee,  for  the  famous  Blue  Grass  region; 
and  there  Jefferson,  the  last  of  the  ten  boys  and 
girls,  was  born  on  June  3,  1808. 

In  a  cabin  within  forty  miles  of  his  birthplace, 
eight  months  and  nine  days  later,  February  12, 
1809,  Abraham  Lincoln  was  born;  and  we  think 
even  the  stars  must  have  wondered  over  the  con 
trasting  fate  of  these  two  children  asleep  in  their 
cradles:  one  of  them  named  in  honor  of  the  living 
President,  Thomas  Jefferson,  whose  views  on  the 
rights  of  the  States  determined  his  namesake's 
career;  the  other  in  honor  of  the  patriarch  Abraham, 
revered  by  Jews,  Christians  and  Mohammedans 
the  world  over  and  whose  namesake  is  likewise 
revered  throughout  the  civilized  world  and  more 
and  more  tenderly  loved  from  generation  to  genera 
tion  by  his  fellow  countrymen.  Was  there  a  far- 
seeing  genius  that  presided  over  the  naming  of 
these  children? 

A  Baptist  church  stands  now  on  the  spot  where 
Jefferson  Davis  was  born,  and  when  it  was  dedicated, 
long  after  the  war  and  old  age  had  whitened  his  hair, 
its  builders  begged  him  to  come  back  and  join  in 
the  services,  and,  with  a  pensive  gladness,  he 
complied  with  their  request. 

When  he  was  four  or  five  years  old  his  father 
sold  his  tobacco  raising  and  thorough-bred  horse 
breeding  plantation  and  struck  off  again  into  the 


6  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

wilderness,  this  time  for  the  Bayou  Teche  country 
in  Louisiana.  But  the  swampy  climate  proved  so 
bad  that  he  soon  sold  out  and  bought  a  large  tract 
in  Wilkenson  County,  Mississippi,  building  his 
house  on  a  knoll  where  the  health-giving  breezes 
from  the  neighboring  yellow  pine  forests  blew  softly 
over  it. 

When  the  future  President  of  the  Southern  Con 
federacy  was  seven  years  old,  one  of  his  father's 
friends,  Major  Hinds,  who  had  fought  in  the  battle 
of  New  Orleans  under  Jackson,  made  a  trip  back  to 
his  old  home  in  Kentucky  and  Mr.  Davis  asked  him 
to  take  Jefferson  with  him  to  a  school  for  boys 
known  as  St.  Thomas  College,  kept  by  Dominican 
Fathers  in  Washington  County,  Kentucky.  Mr. 
Davis  took  this  step  without  his  wife's  consent  or 
knowledge,  because,  perchance,  he  well  knew  she 
would  be  unwilling  to  part  with  the  baby,  as  it  were, 
of  her  large  family. 

The  Major's  party,  with  negro  servants  and  suit 
able  camp  outfit,  consisted  of  his  wife,  his  sister  and 
his  son  Howell,  about  Jefferson's  age.  All  were 
mounted  —  the  boys  on  ponies.  Here  let  me  say  - 
and  with  a  feeling  of  pensiveness,  that  in  view  of  the 
happiness  with  which  these  boys  enjoyed  their 
ponies  and  the  camp  fires,  I  cannot  for  the  moment 
throw  off  —  that  Jefferson's  little  companion  on  this 
ride  became  a  soldier  in  the  Confederate  army  and 
was  killed  soon  after  the  war  was  over  while  trying  to 


HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY  7 

separate  two  of  his  friends  engaged  in  a  pistol  duel 
in  Greenville,  Mississippi. 

The  trail  the  Major  followed  wound  through  the 
wide,  shadow-flecked  wilderness  of  the  Choctah  and 
Cherokee  Nations,  and  when  at  last  he  reached  Nash 
ville,  Tennessee,  he  at  once  led  his  party  to  the  door 
of  his  old  commander,  Jackson,  who  welcomed  him 
and  his  charge  with  such  heartiness  that  they  stayed 
there  for  several  weeks. 

Jefferson  Davis  never  forgot  that  visit  to  the 
Hermitage  with  its  grove  of  towering  primeval 
trees  and  vast  estate  of  grain  and  pasture  fields, 
and  to  his  old  age  cherished  the  remembrance  of 
Mrs.  Jackson's  charms  and  the  mingled  dignity  and 
simplicity  of  her  heroic  and  famous  husband. 

The  lad's  journey  ended  at  the  gateway  of  the 
monks  who,  besides  the  school,  had  a  large  landed 
property,  flocks  of  sheep,  herds  of  cattle,  flour  mills 
and  slaves;  a  very  consistent  and  workable  combi 
nation  of  the  spiritual  and  the  worldly. 

As  might  be  assumed,  nearly  all  of  the  pupils 
were  Catholics,  but  to  the  monks'  credit,  they  did 
not  tiy  to  make  a  proselyte  of  their  new  pupil  and 
in  later  days,  not  alone  when  fame  rested  oil  him  but 
at  the  time  of  his  great  trials,  spoke  well  of  him  and 
were  his  warm  friends  to  the  end. 

He  was  the  youngest  in  the  school  and  slept  on  a 
cot  in  a  room  with  one  of  the  priests.  One  night,  as 
soon  as  the  candle  was  blown  out,  the  older  boys 


8  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

who  had  a  grudge  against  the  priest,  bombarded  the 
room  with  cabbages,  turnips  and  other  like  vege 
tables.  On  the  immediate  investigation  of  the  riot, 
the  indignant  authorities  asked  little  Jeff  if  he  knew 
who  were  the  leaders  and  actors  in  the  affront;  he 
said  he  did,  but  refused  to  tell  on  them.  Whereupon 
one  of  the  tonsured  Fathers  strapped  him  down  to 
receive  the  usual  punishment,  but  before  delivering  a 
blow  asked  him  if  he  was  ready  to  give  the  names  of 
the  culprits.  He  replied,  "No,"  but  he  was  willing, 
however,  to  disclose  one  fact;  he  knew  who  blew 
out  the  candle,  the  signal  for  the  vegetable-equipped 
firing  party.  On  being  asked  who  it  was,  he  responded 
that  he  had  done  it.  His  answer  was  so  unexpect 
edly  frank  and  he  was  so  little  that  the  monk 
unstrapped  him,  and  let  him  off  with  a  serious 
lecture. 

At  the  end  of  the  second  year,  and  President 
Davis  intimates  at  the  insistence  of  his  mother,  he 
was  sent  home,  escorted  thither  on  a  steamboat 
down  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  by  a  young  law  stu 
dent  at  Transylvania.  His  brother  Isaac  met  him  at 
the  landing,  and,  to  surprise  their  mother,  it  was 
mischievously  planned  between  them  that  little 
Jeff  should  go  ahead  and  ask  her  if  she  had  seen 
any  stray  horses  about  the  place.  He  found  her 
sitting  at  the  door  and  boldly  putting  the  question, 
she  turned  and  clasped  him  in  her  arms  saying, 
"No,  but  I  have  got  my  stray  boy."  He  then  ran 


HIS  LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  9 

out  to  his  father  in  the  fields  who  to  his  wonder,  for 
his  father  was  habitually  undemonstrative  in  his 
affection,  embraced  and  kissed  him. 

He  attended  neighborhood  and  select  schools  till 
he  was  sixteen  and  then  entered  the  sophomore 
class  of  Transylvania  University  at  Lexington, 
Kentucky.  That  mysterious  spirit,  which  in  old  age 
we  call  fate  but  in  boyhood  our  good  angel,  must 
have  directed  his  footsteps  back  to  those  college 
grounds  of  his  native  State,  for  surely  he  could  not 
have  been  thrown  in  with  a  student  body  endowed 
with  more  natural  ability  or  animated,  as  time 
proved,  with  more  latent  ambition;  for  six  of  his 
fellow  collegians,  some  from  the  North  and  some 
from  the  South,  were  members  of  the  United  States 
Senate  at  the  same  time  with  him.  Now,  in  the  eye 
of  every  instinctively  high-minded  youth  on  enter 
ing  a  student  body,  Nature  in  her  friendly  and  wise 
provisions,  plants  an  ideal  of  what  constitutes  manli 
ness  and  honor  adorned  by  intellectual  strength. 
In  some  of  the  classes  above  him  he  soon  discovers 
the  embodiment  of  that  ideal  and  considers  it  one 
of  the  happiest  days  of  his  life  when  he  can  call  him 
a  friend.  Hail,  all  hail!  "Nick"  Bowen,  Jones, 
W.  G.,  who  fell  at  Chickamauga  and  Ramseur  at 
Cedar  Creek  in  the  valley,  you  filled  my  West 
Point  boyhood's  ideals,  and  your  manly  faces  are 
still  blooming  as  in  your  youth  for  me.  The  one  in 
that  brilliant  group  at  Transylvania  who  filled  this 


10  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

ideal  when  Davis  matriculated  was  Albert  Sidney 
Johnston,  large  in  frame,  erect,  of  open  countenance 
and  clothed  in  natural  dignity. 

Johnston  preceded  Davis  to  West  Point,  main 
taining  among  the  cadets  drawn  from  the  high  life 
of  all  sections  of  the  country  the  same  preeminence 
for  character  and  ability  as  at  Transylvania .  It  is 
well  known,  it  is  a  matter  of  history,  that  Davis 
appointed  Johnston  second  on  the  list  of  general 
officers  for  the  Confederate  armies,  and  that  he  fell 
at  Shiloh  just  on  the  verge  of  gaining  what  prom 
ised  to  be  an  overwhelming  victory.  His  untimely 
death  was  the  heaviest  blow  in  the  mind  of  Mr. 
Davis  and  that  of  others  which  the  Confederacy 
ever  met,  and  Davis  never  spoke  of  him  and  that 
battle  in  his  old  age  without  eyes  filled  with  the  dew 
of  tenderness. 

Just  after  passing  his  examination  for  the  senior 
class,  and  with  honors,  Davis'  father  died  on  July  4, 
two  years  to  a  day  before  the  death  of  ex-President 
Jefferson,  in  honor  of  whom  he  had  named  his  boy. 
Shortly  afterward,  Davis'  oldest  brother,  Joseph 
Emory,  who  from  that  time  on  was  like  a  second 
father,  secured  for  him  from  President  Monroe  an 
appointment  as  Cadet  to  West  Point;  and  in 
September,  1824,  he  entered  that  famous  institu 
tion  which  through  its  incarnated  traditions  and 
mighty  over-arching  spirit  had  much  to  do,  as  we 
believe,  indeed  we  know,  in  developing  certain  inher- 


HIS  LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  11 

ent  qualities,  some  playing  a  conspicuously  favorable 
and  some  an  equally  conspicuously  unfavorable  part 
in  his  eventful  life. 

In  the  class  two  years  ahead  of  him  was  his  friend, 
Albert  Sidney  Johnston;  in  the  next  class  above, 
Leonidas  Polk,  afterwards  Bishop  of  Louisiana,  who, 
on  the  breaking  out  of  the  war,  laid  off  his  vestments 
and  was  commissioned  by  President  Davis  a  general 
officer  in  the  Confederate  Army  and,  like  Johnston, 
met  death  on  the  field  of  battle.  He  and  Sidney 
Johnston  were  Jefferson  Davis'  closest  friends  at 
West  Point,  a  relation  of  joy  and  tenderness,  con 
fidences  and  affection  which  every  graduate  will 
duly  remember,  for  it  blossoms  on  to  old  age  in  the 
memory  of  every  one  of  them. 

From  Virginia,  in  the  Corps  above  Davis  were 
Robert  E.  Lee  and  Joseph  E.  Johnston,  little  dreaming 
what  the  future  had  in  store  for  them  in  connection 
with  the  tallish,  spare,  dignified  but  ever  graciously 
polite  Cadet  in  the  second  class  below  them.  Yet, 
yet,  the  web  was  in  the  loom,  the  threads  with  their 
varying  hues  were  on  the  spools,  and  the  shuttle 
ready  waiting  till  the  guns  would  open  on  Sumter 
to  weave  the  involved  and  many-hued  designs  of 
their  fate. 

A.  E.  Church,  son  of  the  Chief  Justice  of  Con 
necticut,  graduated  at  the  head  of  Davis'  class  and 
in  my  day  at  West  Point,  1858,  was  professor  of 
mathematics,  and  the  only  time  I  ever  saw  Jefferson 


12  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

Davis,  he  was  walking  at  the  close  of  a  golden  Sep 
tember  day  between  him  and  Professor  Bartlett 
under  the  bending  elms  that  line  the  plain.  We  had 
just  passed  them  when  my  companion,  a  Southern 
Cadet,  observed,  "that  is  Jeff  Davis."  I  turned  and 
recall  with  distinctness  his  graceful  figure  and  dis 
tinguished  bearing.  He  was  arrayed  in  a  dark  blue 
serge  and  wore  a  soft,  light-colored,  low-crowned, 
gracefully  brimmed  hat.  I  have  always  been  sorry 
my  Southern  classmate  did  not  tell  me  who  he  was 
before  we  had  met  and  passed  them,  for  my  mem 
ory,  I  am  sure,  would  have  carried  away  the  look  in 
his  face. 

He  graduated  July  12,  1828,  standing  twenty- 
third  in  a  class  of  thirty-three  members.  And  now, 
let  me  dwell  for  a  moment  on  his  four  years  of  edu 
cation  at  West  Point,  and  make  clear  if  I  can  my 
convictions  as  to  how  advantageous  and  disadvan 
tageous  it  proved  to  be  as  that  beaming  career 
mounted  and  unfolded. 

In  his  day  and  for  many  years  afterwards,  as 
soon  as  a  Cadet  entered  West  Point,  its  spirit 
began  to  prepare  the  ground  of  his  nature,  not  as 
for  an  athlete  or  football  player,  but  to  bear  the 
fruits  of  the  educated  soldier  and  gentleman.  To 
this  end  and  in  keeping  with  its  traditions  inherited 
from  its  Revolutionary  founders,  it  held  before  him 
day  in  and  day  out,  good  manners,  honor,  simplicity, 
courage  and  love  of  truth  as  the  virtues  that,  in 


HIS  LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  13 

connection  with  the  ornaments  of  a  cultivated  mind, 
should  adorn  his  life. 

To  consummate  this  high  purpose  the  Academy 
as  a  seat  of  learning  was  especially  fortunate  in  its 
student  body;  for  in  those  days,  as  from  the  very 
beginning,  only  the  sons  of  families  of  social  dis 
tinction,  as  a  rule,  received  appointments.  The 
inevitable  result  was  that  the  air  of  an  aristocracy 
more  or  less  pervaded  West  Point,  infusing  the 
bearing  of  every  graduate,  albeit  unconsciously  to 
him,  with  some  of  its  innate  cast  of  exclusiveness. 

While  this  combination  of  family  distinction, 
culture  and  a  life  position  as  an  officer  of  the  Army 
with  its  attendant,  possibilities  of  military  glory  gave 
the  graduate  a  ready  entrance  to  the  best  society, 
yet  it  had  one  very  weighty  drawback,  it  cut  him 
off  from  the  great  body  of  the  people  who,  conscious 
of  equal  abilities  but  less  fortunate  and  more  or  less 
doomed  to  toil,  very  naturally,  for  such  is  our 
nature,  withheld  its  friendliness,  meeting  his  assured 
advances  with  a  cold  eye.  This  was  especially  true 
of  the  demeanor  of  the  descendants  of  the  Puritans; 
who,  very  proud  at  heart  and  blessed  with  many, 
many  fine  qualities,  yet  sparingly  so  of  the  spirit 
of  good  fellowship,  to  this  very  day  are  keenly 
resentful  to  any  asserted  social  and  political 
preeminence. 

Now  such  was  the  inborn  nature  of  Jefferson 
Davis  that  while  all  the  virtues  of  West  Point 


14  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

education,  honor,  frankness,  truthfulness  and  good 
manners  found  a  native  soil  to  grow  in,  still  in  it 
too  were  already  germinated  seeds  of  a  certain 
reserve  and  dignity  that  found  the  air  congenial 
and  had  flourished  by  the  time  he  graduated  into  a 
distinctively  aristocratic  bearing  that  clung  to  him 
to  the  end;  and  much,  very  much,  as  all  the  world 
knows  to  his  serious  disadvantage  in  his  presidential 
life. 

So  then,  the  result  of  his  four  years  at  West 
Point,  instead  of  inculcating  the  pliancy  and  assumed 
cordiality  of  the  politician,  was  to  develop  a  person 
ality  of  the  reverse  order.  But,  heavy  as  was  this 
handicap,  the  powers  and  duties  attending  the 
Presidency  of  the  Confederacy  imposed  a  far  heavier 
one  upon  him;  in  this  that  from  the  earliest  days  of 
the  Academy  there  has  been  in  the  minds  of  the 
militia  and  volunteers,  South  and  North,  an  unfav 
orable  prepossession  of  its  graduates;  that  they  not 
only  held  themselves  above  and  aloof  from  them, 
but,  what  was  more  galling,  gave  their  fellow  grad 
uates  in  time  of  war  the  precedence  over  them  no 
matter  how  well  or  bravely  they  had  met  their 
duties. 

And  as  to  this  umbrage  and  unjust  accusation  I 
do  protest.  For  this  is  a  fact,  let  it  weigh  what  it 
will;  in  my  long  life  many  a  fellow  West  Point 
graduate  has  opened  his  heart  to  me  around  camp- 
fires  in  the  field  and  before  blazing  hearths  with 


HIS   LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  15 

their  evoking  unreserve,  and  not  a  word  or  even  a 
hint  ever  fell  from  the  lips  of  one  of  them  to  justify 
such  a  charge. 

But  let  this  be  as  it  may,  no  sooner  had  the  war 
begun  and  Jefferson  Davis  had  to  make  appoint 
ments  for  its  armies  than  many  of  the  officers  of 
volunteers  and  militia,  but  chiefly  ambitious  poli 
ticians  hungering  for  military  honors,  whom  he  had 
refused  to  appoint  to  high  places  as  leaders  of  troops, 
at  once  became  his  bitter,  malicious  enemies,  declaim 
ing  that,  as  usual,  like  all  West  Pointers,  he  had 
favored  his  fellow  graduates.  And  thus  4^as  bred  a 
virulent  faction;  a  faction  whose  poison  soon  mingled 
in  the  editorial  pages  of  leading  newspapers,  under 
mining  the  President's  influence  and,  as  it  persisted 
throughout  the  war,  weakening  like  a  deep-seated 
carbuncle  the  body  of  the  Confederacy  itself. 

But,  however  intense  and  personal  was  this 
hostility,  not  even  his  most  relentless  enemy  ever 
alleged  that  in  deed  or  act,  in  sunshine  or  shadow, 
Jefferson  Davis  violated  a  single  one  of  the  great 
virtues  which  West  Point  had  helped  to  develop 
in  his  character;  namely,  honor,  courage,  fidelity  to 
public  and  private  trusts,  purity  of  life,  and  the 
bearing  and  speech  of  a  gentleman.  And  it  can  be 
said  with  all  truth  that  his  stern  old  Alma  Mater 
had  no  son  who  walked  her  velvety  green  plain, 
who  loved  her  more  deeply  or  cherished  more  her 
ideals.  When  his  voice  was  almost  gone,  and  death 


16  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

waiting  at  the  doorstep,  from  his  pillow  he  whispered 
of  her  and  his  West  Point  bygone  friends  in  loving 
terms,  and  we  think  the  Spirit  of  Old  West  Point 
heard  his  whispering  love  and  would  have  smoothed 
his  brow  if  she  could. 

We  have  dwelt,  and  perhaps  too  long,  on  some  of 
the  advantages  and  disadvantages  of  his  West  Point 
education;  but  not,  we  hope,  without  lighting  a 
candle  here  and  there  in  the  mind  of  the  reader, 
helping  him  to  find  his  way,  not  necessarily  to  a 
favorable,  but  a  fair  judgment  of  Jefferson  Davis 
as  we  go  along  with  the  narrative. 


CHAPTER  II 

UPON  graduation  he  was  commissioned  Second 
Lieutenant  in  the  First  Regular  Infantry,  and  in 
September,  1828,  at  the  expiration  of  the  usual 
graduation  leave,  reported  at  Jefferson  Barracks, 
St.  Louis. 

Shortly  afterward  he  was  ordered  to  join  his 
company  at  Fort  Crawford,  the  present  site  of 
Prairie  du  Chien,  Wisconsin,  journeying  thither  on 
one  of  the  triple-decked,  stern-wheel  steamboats, 
an  imperial  princess  of  navigation  in  those  days, 
saluting  grandly  as  they  approached  and  departed 
from  cities  and  towns  with  prolonged,  reverberating, 
hoarse  blasts,  arousing  in  the  breast  of  every  pas 
senger,  however  obscure,  the  momentarily  pleasing 
sense  of  a  vague  importance. 

Fort  Crawford  at  that  time  was  one  of  the  Army's 
extreme  outposts  on  the  frontier;  but  for  a  hundred 
years  or  more  before  its  day  on  the  same  site  had 
been  a  trading  post  of  the  fur  gathering  companies 
of  Quebec.  For  at  that  point,  near  the  mouth  of  the 
Wisconsin,  one  of  their  long,  winding  trails  through 
the  wilderness  of  lakes,  forests,  and  beaver-homing 
streams  crossed  the  Mississippi,  thence  bearing  on 
over  the  wide  ranges  of  buffalo  and  under  soaring 

17 


18  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

eagles  to  the  faraway  upper  Missouri.  As  I  write 
these  lines,  the  native  wildness  of  that  historic  trail 
steals  back  into  this  room  and  I  wish,  reader,  that 
we  could  have  travelled  and  camped  with  its  care 
free  hunters  and  trappers. 

Around  the  fort  and  up  and  down  the  river  were 
many  Indians;  Sacs  and  Foxes,  Wyandots,  Menomi- 
nees,  Winnebagos  and  Pottawatomies,  who,  crowded 
back  day  in  and  day  out  from  their  hunting  grounds 
and  the  graves  of  their  people  by  equally  fierce  and 
unmerciful  frontiersmen,  were  not  in  a  friendly  mood, 
and  on  several  occasions  when  Davis  was  out  with 
detachments  to  get  timber  for  the  completion  of 
the  fort,  he  and  his  men  barely  escaped  massacre 
from  bands  on  the  warpath. 

But  that  first  winter  he  had  another  and  more 
pleasing  experience,  one  that  he  enjoyed  recalling  in 
his  old  age.  With  a  sergeant,  he  was  out  on  a  recon 
naissance  and  some  forty  miles  from  the  fort  when 
night  overtook  them.  After  wandering  through  the 
darkness  hour  after  hour,  to  their  joy  they  came 
across  a  cabin.  On  hailing,  its  occupant  came  to  the 
door  and  asked,  "Who  is  there? " 

Davis  recognized  the  voice  and  answered,  "Were 
you  ever  at  Transylvania?" 

"Yes,"  responded  the  pioneer,  "I  was  there 
from  1821  to  1825." 

"Do  you  remember  a  college  boy  named  Jeff 
Davis?" 


HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY  19 

" Of  course  I  do." 

"Well,  lam  Jeff." 

"That  was  enough  for  me;  I  pulled  him  off  his 
horse  and  into  my  cabin  and  it  was  hours  before 
either  of  us  would  think  of  sleep,"  said  George  W. 
Jones,  later  United  States  Senator  from  Iowa,  in  a 
statement  after  Mr.  Davis'  death. 

The  next  spring  with  a  small  detachment  he  was 
sent  up  the  Wisconsin  to  Yellow  Creek,  somewhat 
over  a  hundred  miles  from  Crawford,  to  establish 
a  sawmill  for  additional  lumber.  There  he  met  the 
Indians  again,  but  gaining  their  affection,  he  was 
formally  made  a  chief  of  the  tribe,  and  an  old  squaw 
a  few  years  afterward,  out  of  friendship  and  in  remem 
brance  of  him,  notified  an  adjacent  post  of  a  con 
templated  attack.  While  on  this  lonely  duty  he 
was  seized  with  such  a  debilitating  illness  that  he  had 
to  be  carried  about  and  nursed  like  a  child;  but,  fortu 
nately,  he  had  with  him  James  Pemberton,  colored, 
a  slave  in  law  but  on  the  footing  with  his  master, 
whom  he  had  played  with  as  a  boy,  of  a  friend  and 
glad  companion  —  if  ever  there  were  two  friends  in 
this  world  that  knew  each  other  and  loved  each  other, 
they  were  Jefferson  Davis  and  James  Pemberton. 

Just  before  the  breaking  out  of  the  Black  Hawk 
War,  Davis  rejoined  his  regiment  at  Fort  Crawford, 
then  commanded  by  Zachary  Taylor,  later  President 
Taylor.   Colonel  Taylor  had  his  family  with  him  - 
three  girls  and  a  boy  —  and  Jefferson  Davis  for  his 


20  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

first  wife,  married  the  eldest,  Sarah  Knox  Taylor, 
as  will  be  told  later. 

April,  1831,  Davis  accompanied  the  troops  in  the 
campaign  against  the  Indians;  their  line  of  march, 
made  in  early  May,  was  up  the  pebbly-shored  Rock 
River;  the  wild  plums,  honeysuckles  and  pawpaws 
in  the  thickets  here  and  there  along  its  sycamore- 
shadowed  banks,  and  the  flowers  of  the  prairies  that 
stretched  away  from  them  were  in  full  bloom. 

Besides  the  Regulars  under  Taylor,  there  were 
militia  organizations  called  out  by  the  Governor  of 
Illinois,  a  thousand  or  more  men,  and  among  them 
first  as  a  private  and  later  as  a  captain  of  one  of 
these  companies  was  Abraham  Lincoln,  who  brought 
back  from  that  campaign  something  that  Davis' 
nature  could  not  give  lodgment  or  whose  value 
as  a  foil  he  could  not  appreciate,  namely,  several 
additions  to  that  famous  granary  of  funny  stories 
by  which  Lincoln  avoided  many  a  conflict  with  the 
politicians  of  his  own  party,  who,  no  matter  how 
angry  on  entering  the  White  House,  always  went 
away  amused  and  more  highly  attached  to  him 
than  ever  because  of  the  clever  way  he  had  dodged 
their  issue  behind  a  funny  story. 

The  Indians  were  overwhelmingly  defeated  in 
August  at  the  Battle  of  Bad  Axe  some  twenty  odd 
miles  above  Fort  Crawford,  and  a  few  days  later, 
their  leader,  Black  Hawk,  then  an  old  man,  his  son 
and  the  Prophet,  a  tall,  straight  chief  with  a  broad 


HIS  LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  21 

face,  large,  full  eyes,  abundant  coarse  black  hair 
ornamented  with  an  eagle  feather  and  dressed  in  a 
suit  of  white  deerskin,  were  taken  prisoners  by  a 
treacherous  band  of  Winnebagos  and  delivered  up 
to  the  authorities  at  Fort  Crawford. 

A  moving  account  of  the  sufferings  of  the  Indians 
in  that  last  great  battle  of  their  race  east  of  the 
Mississippi  may  be  found  in  a  letter  from  Mrs. 
Albert  Sidney  Johnston,  whose  husband  was  in  the 
engagement,  to  a  member  of  her  family.  In  years 
gone  by,  more  than  once  I  lounged  on  what  is  known 
as  Black  Hawk's  Tower  at  the  junction  of  the  Rock 
River  with  the  Mississippi  and  pondered  over  their 
fate.  That  spot  with  its  commanding  outlook  had 
been  the  home  of  his  tribe  for  generation  after 
generation;  his  forefathers  and  favorite  daughter 
were  buried  there,  and  in  my  day  the  rows  of  their 
cornfields  were  still  traceable.  The  view  is  wide 
and  you  see  the  distant  skyline  asleep  in  the  bosom 
of  the  prairie. 

It  was  decided  that  Black  Hawk,  his  son,  and  a 
number  of  others  should  be  sent  as  prisoners  of 
war  to  St.  Louis  and  Davis  was  detailed  by  Colonel 
Taylor  to  conduct  them  thither.  Black  Hawk  says 
in  his  autobiography  dictated  the  following  year: 
"Then  started  to  Jefferson  Barracks  (St.  Louis) 
in  a  steamboat  (the  Winnebago)  under  the  charge 
of  a  young  war  chief,  who  treated  us  all  with  much 
kindness.  He  is  a  good  and  brave  young  chief  with 


22  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

whose  conduct  I  was  much  pleased.  On  our  way 
down  we  called  at  Galena  and  remained  a  short 
time.  The  people  crowded  to  the  boat  to  see  us;  but 
the  war  chief  would  not  permit  them  to  enter  the 
apartment  where  we  were  —  knowing,  from  what 
his  own  feelings  would  have  been  if  he  had  been 
placed  in  a  similar  situation,  that  we  did  not  want 
a  gaping  crowd  around  us."  Verily,  Davis'  con 
sideration  for  the  feelings  of  his  captives  speaks 
well  for  him. 

On  their  arrival  at  St.  Louis  a  ball  and  chain 
were  fastened  on  Black  Hawk,  and  while  there 
Washington  Irving  went  to  see  him  and  wrote,  "  He 
is  upwards  of  seventy  years  old,  has  a  fine  head,  a 
Roman  style  of  nose  and  prepossessing  counte 
nance."  Later  he  was  sent  to  Fort  Monroe  for  con 
finement,  little  dreaming  that  Jefferson  Davis 
would  follow  in  his  steps  to  the  same  place  and  there 
also  wear  manacles,  people  craving  to  gape  at  him 
as  at  Black  Hawk.  But  Black  Hawk  had  almost 
the  freedom  of  the  Post  with  its  widely  encircling 
green  ramparts,  while  Davis  was  closely  guarded 
by  double  lines  of  sentinels  in  a  semi-dark  casemate, 
no  one  allowed  to  approach  it,  sentinels  and  blazing 
lights  in  the  room  throughout  the  night. 

Black  Hawk  was  so  kindly  treated  during  his 
imprisonment  that  on  parting  with  the  command 
ing  officer,  Colonel  Eustis,  he  said,  "The  memory 
of  your  friendship  will  remain  till  the  Great  Spirit 


HIS   LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  23 

says  it  is  time  for  Black  Hawk  to  sing  his  death 
song,"  and  presented  Colonel  Eustis  with  a  white 
deerskin  hunting  dress  and  some  feathers  of  the 
white  eagle. 

Jefferson  Davis  carried  away  no  such  feeling  at 
the  end  of  his  two  years'  confinement,  at  least  for 
his  first  keeper,  Gen.  Nelson  A.  Miles,  and,  in  view 
of  his  treatment,  it  is  no  wonder;  but  to  the  end  of 
his  life  he  had  the  warmest  gratitude  for  his  last 
keeper,  Colonel  Burton.  There  is  something  striking 
to  me,  partaking  of  the  mysterious,  in  these  almost 
identical  occurrences  in  the  lives  of  Davis  and 
Black  Hawk. 

Upon  the  creation  of  the  First  Dragoons,  winter 
of  1832,  a  regiment  famous  in  the  history  of  our 
Cavalry,  Davis  was  selected  for  one  of  its  officers 
and  soon  became  its  Adjutant.  Its  headquarters 
were  at  Fort  Gibson  and  on  one  occasion,  when  it 
was  about  to  set  off  for  the  Creek  Nation,  his 
Sergeant-Major  who  was  sick  in  the  hospital  was 
forbidden  by  the  Surgeon  to  go  with  the  troops. 
He  appealed  to  Davis,  who  on  his  death  bed  in  New 
Orleans  received  the  following  letter  from  the  old 
Sergeant  (Davis  died  on  December  6): 

"November  28,  1889. 
Honored  Sir: 

Once  when  there  was  much  sickness  prevailing 
among  the  First  Dragoons  at  Fort  Gibson,  and  I  was 


24  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

very  sick  in  the  hospital,  the  regiment  was  ordered 
for  the  benefit  of  its  health  to  remove  from  the  Cher 
okee  Nation;  but  the  surgeon  refused  to  allow  me 
to  be  removed  with  the  regiment.  However  you 
came  to  my  aid  and  had  me  taken  to  the  Creek 
Nation  where  I  rapidly  recovered.  And  I  hope  that 
your  temporary  removal  from  Beauvoir  to  New 
Orleans  will  result  in  a  like  benefit  to  your  health, 
and  that  when  the  long  roll  is  sounded  you  will  find 
yourself  in  the  camp  of  the  Great  Commander. 

I  am  your  old  Sergeant-Major  of  the  First 
Dragoons." 

Reader,  let  me  hope  that  when  the  long  roll  is 
sounded  you  and  I  will  be  in  the  camp  of  that  same 
Great  Commander. 

Soon  after  the  incident  referred  to  in  the  Sergeant's 
letter,  Davis,  longing  for  the  quieter  life  of  a  planter, 
on  June  30,  1835,  resigned  from  the  Army,  and  in 
July  married  Sarah  Knox  Taylor,  the  daughter  of 
General  Taylor,  whom  he  had  been  in  love  with  and 
engaged  to,  for  over  two  years.  Now,  his  enemies, 
passion  at  its  height,  and  with  pens  dripping  with  gall, 
declared,  in  an  article  which  appeared  in  an  encyclo 
pedia,  that  beside  being  a  slaveholder  and  a  plotting 
traitor  he  was  base  enough  to  elope  with  Miss 
Taylor;  but  here  are  the  facts. 

When  his  daughter's  engagement  to  Davis  was 
announced,  the  General  told  a  friend  that  he  had 


HIS   LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  25 

only  the  kindliest  feelings  for  her  choice,  but  he  had 
hoped  that  not  one  of  his  daughters  would  marry 
into  the  Army  and  undergo  the  inconveniences  and 
hardships  that  he  had  met  with  in  his  own  soldier  life. 

Subsequently  a  garrison  court-martial  was  ordered, 
with  Taylor  as  president,  the  other  members  a 
Major  "Tom"  Smith  (between  whom  and  Taylor 
there  was  a  bitter  feud),  Davis  and  a  young  officer 
who  had  just  reported  for  duty  and  who,  when  the 
Court  assembled,  appeared  in  citizen's  dress,  explain 
ing  that  his  uniform  for  some  reason  or  other  had 
not  been  forwarded  from  St.  Louis,  his  last  station. 
Taylor,  a  stickler  for  customs  and  rules,  was  unwill 
ing  to  go  on  with  the  cases  until  the  lieutenant 
could  take  his  seat  in  uniform  with  sword  at  his 
side.  An  angry  discussion  at  once  broke  out  between 
him  and  Smith  over  the  question  of  proceeding  and, 
to  the  old  General's  surprise  and  disgust,  Davis 
voted  with  Smith  to  go  on  with  the  trial.  A  col 
loquy  at  once  took  place  between  Taylor  and  Davis 
over  his  vote,  which  was  ended  by  the  old  General 
letting  fly  an  oath  —  and  in  that  line  we  fear  he 
shared  with  his  fellow  Army  and  Navy  officers  a 
fairly  strong  vocabulary  —  that  any  man  who 
would  vote  with  "Tom"  Smith  on  a  question  of 
that  kind  should  never,  never  marry  one  of  his 
daughters,  and  forbade  Davis  from  ever  entering 
his  house. 

It  is  with  a  smile  my  eye  rests  on  that  group; 


26  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

and  I  wonder  how  many  young  officers  of  this  day, 
engaged  as  Davis  was  to  the  old  General's  daughter, 
would  have  voted  against  him?  Not  one  in  a  hun 
dred  we  venture  to  say.  Major  "Tom"  Smith 
would  have  been  outvoted  and  the  Court  adjourned 
till  the  careless  lieutenant  could  appear  properly, 
full  uniform,  epaulettes,  sash  and  sword,  the  accused 
meanwhile  confined  in  the  guardhouse. 

When  a  year  or  more  had  elapsed  after  this  amus 
ing  court-martial  scene,  Miss  Taylor  told  her  father 
that,  as  he  had  not  alleged  anything  against  the 
character  or  honor  of  her  lover,  she  was  going  to 
marry  him.  But  that  vote  with  "Tom"  Smith 
was  still  rankling  and  he  would  not  give  his  consent; 
so  she  made  her  arrangements  to  go  to  her  aunt 
in  Kentucky  and  there  be  married.  A  stateroom 
was  taken  on  a  boat  for  St.  Louis,  a  Captain  McRee 
escorted  Miss  Taylor  to  the  landing  and  lo,  there 
was  her  father  transacting  some  business;  she 
made  a  final  appeal  to  him,  but  without  avail,  and 
sailed  away  to  Kentucky,  and  in  the  house  of  her 
aunt  and  in  the  presence  of  two  of  General  Taylor's 
sisters  and  many  others  of  the  Taylor  family  they 
were  married  June,  1835.  And  this,  Jefferson  Davis' 
enemies  with  a  sneer  called  an  elopement;  much 
to  the  amusement  of  Satan's  secretaries  at  their 
desks. 

They  set  out  at  once  for  his  plantation,  "Brier* 
field"  on  the  Mississippi,  a  part  of  "Hurricane,*' 


HIS  LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  27 

the  greater  plantation  of  his  brother,  Joseph  Emory, 
some  thirty  miles  below  Vicksburg.  In  August,  to 
escape  the  chill-and-fever  malady  which  the  unac- 
climated  to  that  region  had  to  go  through,  they 
went  to  his  sister's  plantation,  Locust  Grove, 
Bayou  Sara,  Louisiana.  But  the  dreaded,  enfeebling 
disease  had  sown  its  seeds  and  within  a  day  or  two 
both  came  down  with  it  and  soon  were  dangerously 
sick.  Chill  after  chill  is  followed  by  a  raging  fever 
in  this  ailment  and,  under  its  ravages  day  and  night, 
it  was  not  long  till  Mrs.  Davis  became  delirious  and 
her  end  drew  near.  Mr.  Davis  meanwhile  was  not 
told  of  her  condition,  but  on  hearing  her  voice  a 
few  hours  before  she  breathed  her  last,  September  15, 
—  she  had  begun  to  sing  in  her  delirium  "  Faery 
Bells,"  a  song  she  had  sung  to  him  many  a  time, — 
he  struggled  from  his  sick  chamber  to  her  room 
and  found  her  dying.  She  was  buried  in  his  sister's 
plantation  graveyard,  and  there  she  lies.  "  Faery 
Bells"  !  and  the  pathos  of  it  all!  Malignity,  Vitu 
peration  and  Vindictiveness,  ill-visaged  trio,  and  boon 
companions  of  the  DeviPs  secretaries,  a  word  with 
you.  Miss  Taylor  had  not  eloped  with  her  lover, 
and  you  should  have  kept  away  from  that  lone  grave 
on  Bayou  Sara! 

After  days  and  days  during  which  his  life  hung 
in  the  balance,  his  faithful  colored  servant,  James 
Pemberton,  lifted  him  from  his  bed  and  carried 
him  home,  but  a  cough  set  in  and  late  in  the  year, 


28  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

for  the  benefit  of  his  health,  he  went  to  Cuba,  and 
the  following  spring  made  his  way  home  through 
New  York  and  Washington. 

At  Washington  he  fell  in  with  his  Transylvanian 
friend,  Jones,  he  who  had  given  him  shelter  the 
night  he  was  lost  some  forty  miles  from  Fort  Crawford 
and  whom  meanwhile  ambition  and  ability  had  lifted 
from  a  cabin  to  the  United  States  Senate.  With 
him  and  others,  Jefferson  Davis  called  on  the  Presi 
dent,  Martin  Van  Buren,  who  interested  in  his  talk, 
asked  Davis  to  breakfast  with  him. 

After  breakfast  Van  Buren,  who  like  Davis  put 
a  stake  on  personal  care  and  appearance,  noticing 
his  guest's  shoes,  a  fine  pair  that  set  off  his  small, 
proudly  arched  feet,  inquired,  "  Where  did  you  get 
those  shoes,  may  I  ask?"  "New  Orleans,  Mr. 
President/'  replied  Davis.  "I  had  a  pair  like  that 
made  in  France,"  said  Van  Buren,  "but  I  have 
never  seen  that  stitch  since." 

Van  Buren  was  noted  for  his  grace  and  good 
breeding  and  was  the  first  to  adorn  the  White 
House  with  here  and  there  a  rare,  precious  bowl 
and  vase  filled  with  roses;  when  I  last  saw  his  grave 
at  Kinderhook  tall  half-wild  grass  was  waving  over 
it,  and  lichens  were  slowly  stitching  their  gray  seals 
on  his  time-bleached  marble  tombstone. 


CHAPTER   III 

IN  due  time  Jefferson  Davis'  eyes,  after  a  passage 
over  the  Alleghenies  by  stage  and  down  the  Ohio 
and  Mississippi  by  boat,  fell  on  his  blooming  cotton 
fields  and  then  on  his  empty  house.  Faery  Bells! 
He  turned  his  steps  away  from  it  and  sought  his 
brother's  door  and  there  for  five  or  six  years  made 
his  home. 

Now,  since  in  those  four  or  five  years  of  practi 
cally  unbroken  seclusion  the  wealth  of  intellectual 
acquirements,  knowledge  of  science,  history  and 
literature  that  distinguished  and  adorned  his  official 
and  private  life  were  harvested  and  the  foundations 
of  the  political  views  which  determined  his  career 
were  laid,  let  us  look  at  his  plantation  life  and 
surroundings. 

It  was  his  rule,  summer  and  winter,  to  pass 
hours  every  day  in  the  fields  on  familiar  terms  with 
his  slaves;  and,  as  a  result,  abundant  were  his  crops 
of  cotton  and  corn,  for  many  a  light-hearted  song  had 
been  sung  as  they  grew  into  blade,  bloom  and  tassel. 

'His  system  for  the  government  of  his  slaves 
provided  for  a  regular  court  with  a  judge,  jury  and 
sheriff  of  their  own  body  for  the  trial  of  all  offenses 
committed  by  slaves  against  each  other  or  serious 

29 


30  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

violations  of  rules  or  proprieties.  His  servant 
James  Pemberton  was  the  judge  of  this  court  and 
the  only  appeal  from  its  decisions  was  to  Davis 
himself,  who  invariably  modified  or  remitted  the 
sentences  when  severe.  When  Pemberton  died, 
Davis  had  to  hire  white  overseers,  but  in  no  case 
were  they  permitted  to  inflict  corporal  punishment. 
Any  skilled  workman,  as  blacksmith  or  carpenter, 
was  allowed  to  do  work  for  neighboring  plantations, 
returning  to  his  master  common  day-laborer's  pay 
and  keeping  the  rest  for  himself.  A  missionary  of 
the  Methodist  Church  was  engaged  and  his  salary 
paid  for  religious  training  of  the  slaves.  When  a 
marriage  took  place  Mrs.  Davis  supplied  the  wed 
ding  gown  and  when  death  came  the  master  mani 
fested  his  sympathy  with  the  sorrowful.  Those  who 
were  still  living  when  death  fell  upon  him,  sent  Mrs. 
Davis  this  letter: 

We,  the  old  servants  and  tenants  of  our  beloved 
master,  Honorable  Jefferson  Davis,  have  cause  to 
mingle  our  tears  over  his  death  who  was  always 
so  kind  and  thoughtful  of  our  peace  and  happiness. 
We  extend  to  you  our  humble  sympathy. 

Respectfully, 
Your  old  tenants  and  servants. 

This  letter  should  have  been  among  the  historic 
papers  in  the  hermetically  sealed  copper  box  set  in 


HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY  31 

the  foundation  of  his  monument  that  stands  on  the 
banks  of  the  James  in  Hollywood  Cemetery,  Rich 
mond;  for  it  is  a  bit  of  enduring  evidence  as  to  the 
kind  of  man  he  was  far  outweighing  the  work  of 
my  or  any  pen. 

His  diversion  was  a  stud  of  thoroughbreds,  for 
he  and  his  brother  were  lovers  of  the  turf  and,  by 
the  way,  in  their  stables  was  Black  Oliver,  a  Cana 
dian  horse,  one  of  whose  sons,  a  pony-like  pacer, 
was  taken  from  the  plantation  in  the  Vicksburg 
campaign  and  given  to  Grant,  who  named  him  Jeff 
Davis  and  rode  him  from  time  to  time,  and  this 
horse's  neck  I  once  stroked  on  our  way  from  the 
Rapidan  to  Appomattox. 

His  nights  and  every  leisure  hour,  for  he  was  a 
born  student,  were  passed  in  his  brother's  library, 
that  was  fairly  large  for  those  days  and  on  whose 
shelves,  beside  the  British  poets,  Spectator  and  Taller, 
were  all  the  standard  works  on  the  history  of  the 
Constitution,  the  Federalist,  Elliott's  Debates,  etc., 
which  in  his  solitude  he  read  and  reread.  He  and 
his  brother  meanwhile  followed  with  the  keenest 
interest  the  acrimonious  discussion  going  on  in 
Congress  and  the  press  over  slavery,  the  original 
rights  and  sovereignty  of  the  States,  prerogatives 
indisputable  to  their  minds. 

But  there  was  no  one,  however,  to  challenge  the 
soundness  of  these  convictions  or  the  ultimate 
results  if  insisted  upon,  for  they  were  alone  in  an 


32  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

almost  primeval  wilderness;  and  about  that  let  me 
say  something,  for  the  wilderness  breeds  an  unself- 
conscious,  indomitable,  transparent  personality  and 
type  of  mind  of  its  own. 

The  isolation  and  solitude  of  their  plantations, 
as  well  as  those  throughout  the  South  and  especially 
the  Gulf  States,  was  very  deep.  They  were  in  the 
midst  of  miles  of  solemn  woods  shadowing  the  leaf- 
stained  waters  of  many  sluggish  streams  and  miasma- 
breeding  swamps,  and  over  all  a  heavy,  brooding 
silence,  broken  by  day,  now  near,  now  far,  by  cow 
bells,  some  keyed  high,  some  keyed  low,  and  at 
night  by  the  lonely  voice  of  an  owl  or  the  yelps  of 
a  band  of  prowling  wolves.  Now  I  am  fain  to  think 
an  isolation  of  that  depth  and  kind  is  bound  to  play 
a  part  in  the  character  of  the  human  life  it  sur 
rounds,  developing  not  only  the  native  senses  of 
courage  and  freedom,  but  also  a  reflecting  serious 
ness  and  the  habit  of  looking  at  all  questions  as 
when  in  the  woods,  through  vistas  only.  Moreover, 
the  loneliness  of  a  wilderness  breeds  a  longing  for 
human  speech,  and  to  gratify  that  longing  its  cabin 
and  hewed  log  house  indwellers  would  travel,  as  we 
are  told  and  I  know  from  boyhood  experience,  miles 
and  miles  to  attend  religious  and  political  meetings. 
And  once  there  what  would  they  hear  in  those  early 
days?  Not  so  much  the  language  of  reason  or  induc 
tive  philosophy,  but  assertion  and  the  figurative 
language  of  feeling;  and,  as  feeling  is  the  kindler  of 


HIS   LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  33 

eloquence,  which  in  turn  is  but  the  utterance  of 
emotion,  they  followed  with  rapture  the  preacher 
and  the  politician,  for  they  were  expressing  their 
own  suppressed  emotions.  And  that,  let  me  venture 
to  say,  is  what  made  the  sermons  and  the  speeches 
of  the  Southern  and  Western  orators  so  radiant  and 
teeming  with  pathos  and  sentiment.  It  was  sup 
pressed  emotions,  too,  that  made  the  touching 
eloquence  of  the  Indian  chiefs. 

Again,  culture's  clouds  of  doubt  and  disbelief  did 
not  hang  over  the  minds  of  the  speakers  or  audience; 
heaven  and  hell  were  realities  to  the  shouting 
preacher;  and  in  the  years  before  the  war  when  the 
stump  orator  in  fierce  tones,  with  extended  right 
arm  and  closed  fist,  declared  the  sovereignty  of  the 
States,  they  were  also  realities  —  for  did  not  his 
hearers  breathe  the  very  air  of  independence  in 
their  boundless  woods,  and  had  they  not  inherited 
as  Davis,  Lee,  and  every  other  Southerner  of  prom 
inence,  the  idea  of  the  sovereignty  of  the  original 
colonies,  not  as  a  theory  but  as  an  indisputable  fact? 

Truly,  truly,  the  natural  feelings  of  the  lonely 
dwellers  in  the  piny  woods  of  the  South  played  a  big, 
yes  a  profoundly  dramatic  part  in  the  mighty  sec 
tional  struggle;  and  those  of  us  who  had  to  meet 
their  sons  on  the  fields  of  Virginia,  slaveholders  or 
non-slaveholders,  and  be  it  remembered  that  not 
one  in  thirty  of  the  great  Stonewall  Brigade,  and 
probably  not  in  one  twenty  of  Pickett's  Charge, 


34  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

was  a  slaveholder,  soon  realized  we  were  facing  a 
foe  of  indomitable  courage,  fortified  with  heartfelt 
convictions  as  to  political  rights.  General  Sedgwick, 
who  was  killed  at  Spotsylvania,  wrote  to  his  sister 
just  after  Pope's  defeat  at  Manassas,  "the  enemy 
have  outgeneraled  us.  Their  hearts  are  in  the  cause" 
What  musket,  what  cannon  matches  the  heart  in 
defense  of  home  or  a  nation's  life?  Oh,  faithful, 
gallant,  liberty-loving  organ!  You  are  the  comrade 
on  the  battlefield  for  me;  let  it  be  a  field  of  defeat 
or  victory. 

So  then,  let  us  not  lose  sight  of  this  wilderness 
background  with  its  depths  of  primitive  feelings  and 
convictions,  not  only  in  Jefferson  Davis'  case,  but 
the  men  who  carried  the  colors  of  the  Confederacy. 
For  the  failure  of  historians  to  appreciate  duly  the 
state  of  mind  and  heart  in  the  South,  ascribable  in 
great  measure  to  the  influences  of  their  wilderness 
homes,  has  done  more,  in  my  opinion,  than  any  one 
thing  to  mislead  them  as  to  the  cause  of  the  War 
and  to  be  unfair  in  their  judgment  of  the  Southern 
people. 

Such  then  was  the  background  of  woods,  political 
beliefs  and  intense  provincialism  in  the  plantation  life 
of  Jefferson  Davis. 

Now,  since  of  all  these  influences  the  one  that 
played  the  great  and,  as  it  turned  out,  fatal  part 
in  his  life  and  that  of  the  Southern  people  was  the 
doctrine  of  State  Rights,  let  us  look  up  its  grounds, 


HIS   LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  35 

for  we  think  it  essential  to  a  fair  judgment  on  him 
and  them. 

Our  first  colonists,  as  we  all  know,  settled,  some 
on  the  majestic  James,  some  on  the  sand  dunes  of 
Cape  Cod,  some  on  the  mountain-born  Delaware, 
and  some  on  the  Savannah. 

Fortunately  for  the  planting  of  good  manners  and 
the  ideals  of  the  scholar  and  the  gentleman,  the 
first  that  landed  were  largely  drawn  from  the  aristo 
cratic  cavalier  class  of  Old  England,  and  the  second 
the  Pilgrims  who  brought  the  roots  and  planted 
them  of  a  pure  democracy  infused  with  a  stern 
morality.  To  me  it  is  truly  mysterious  but  elating 
that  the  genius  to  preside  over  the  New  World  saw 
to  it  that  these  brightest  ornaments  of  a  nation, 
scholarship,  good  manners,  high  ideals  and  a  democ 
racy  purely  representative,  acknowledging  a  spiritual 
kingdom,  should  characterize  the  two  foundation 
colonies,  New  England  and  Virginia. 

But  when  and  wherever  they  landed,  they  all 
carried  with  them  the  primal  ideas  of  English  law 
and  customs;  and  no  sooner  were  the  little  groups 
conscious  of  the  necessity  of  established  government, 
than  each  crystallized  around  certain  religious  and 
political  dogmas;  organized  with  a  seat  of  govern 
ment  on  the  lines  of  an  absolutely  independent  body, 
with  rivers  and  mountains,  as  a  rule,  for  their 
boundaries.  Within  these  limits  their  original  sov 
ereignties  were  not  to  be  questioned  by  any  neigh- 


36  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

boring  colony.  And  so  deeply  had  the  spirit  of 
these  local  sovereignties  breathed  into  the  daily  life, 
that  when  the  mother  country  undertook  to  sub 
ordinate  this  sovereignty  under  the  guise  of  taxation, 
they  rebelled; and  on  the  fields  of  Lexington,  Saratoga, 
Cowpens,  King's  Mountain  and  Yorktown  they 
fought  it  out  and  won.  Now  what  is  most  signifi 
cant  and  important,  as  bearing  on  the  ground  of 
original  State  Rights,  is  this,  when  the  peace  was 
signed  the  King  of  England  signed  it  acknowledging 
by  name  each  of  the  thirteen  colonies. 

Here  then  in  the  King's  acknowledgment  of  each 
colony's  sovereignty,  we  have  the  birthplace  of  the 
doctrine  of  State  Rights,  with  its  fateful  corollary 
of  a  right  to  secede  from  the  Union.  It  would  be 
idle  in  the  light  of  the  past  to  discuss  that  claim, 
the  graves  that  were  filled  in  four  years  of  war  to 
support  it  are  arguments  against  it;  notwithstand 
ing,  had  that  question  been  submitted  to  the  States 
prior  to  1830  for  determination,  it  would,  in  my 
belief,  have  been  carried  unanimously  in  the  affirma 
tive.  It  was  practically  asserted  by  New  England 
at  Hartford,  1814,  and  even  as  late  as  1854  the  little 
hamlet  of  Fitzwilliam,  New  Hampshire,  voted 
solemnly  in  "town  meeting  urging  its  representative 
in  Congress  to  take  the  stand  of  going  out  of  the 
Union  if  a  further  extension  of  slavery  were  allowed. 

One  word  before  we  leave  the  question  of  State 
Rights  —  each  of  the  original  colonies  was  repre- 


HIS  LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  37 

sented  by  a  star  in  the  blue  field  of  our  national 
colors.  The  founders  of  the  nation  chose  their 
emblem  from  the  over-arching  heavens.  Shall  we 
substitute  in  that  field  the  Avaxing  crescents  of  big 
commercial  interests,  or  a  milky  way  of  dreamy, 
confused  political  theories?  No,  let  us  follow  as  our 
forefathers  did  the  ways  of  Heaven  and  keep  the 
stars  of  our  flag  undimmed  in  their  original  glory, 
revolving  around  the  central  sun,  the  Constitution, 
but  each  independent  in  its  orbit. 

And  now  a  word  as  to  slavery,  which,  although 
originally  it  had  nothing  whatsoever  to  do  with  the 
theory  of  State  Rights,  became  its  synonym  with  all 
its  curse  and  universal  condemnation.  Yet  in  the 
early  days  slavery  was  recognized,  North  as  well  as 
South,  as  lawful;  and  the  owner  of  a  captured 
Pequot  Indian  in  New  England  or  a  purchased  Afri 
can  in  the  South  had  the  protection  of  the  law  for 
the  enjoyment  of  his  slave  property. 

It  is  only  fair  to  the  South,  which  by  a  strange 
fate  had  to  bear  the  ignominy  of  slavery  and 
through  secession  to  be  the  last  indirect  defender 
of  its  curse,  to  say  that  more  than  once  in  colonial 
days  she  tried  to  free  herself  from  the  abomination. 
The  Virginia  House  of  Burgesses  passed  twenty- 
three  acts  to  prohibit  the  further  import  of  slaves, 
and  the  King  of  England  vetoed  all  of  them;  even 
South  Carolina,  as  late  as  1760,  enacted  a  similar 
law  against  bringing  in  more  slaves  which  the  King 


38  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

vetoed,  so  profitable  was  the  degrading,  pitiless 
slave  trade  to  England's  sordid  commercial  interest. 
Again,  when  the  Constitution  was  adopted  its 
first  draft  provided  for  terminating  the  slave  trade 
in  1800;  an  amendment  was  offered  extending  the 
time  to  1808,  and  it  was  carried,  every  vote  from 
the  North  for  it,  and  all  but  one  from  the  South 
against  it.  New  England  ships,  like  those  of  old 
England,  were  in  the  business;  sailing  out  of  Salem, 
Boston  and  Newport  to  the  west  coast  of  Africa 
to  pack,  in  unspeakable  cruelty,  their  between- 
decks  with  the  poor  creatures  bought  with  rum  and 
trinkets.  The  first  English  ship  devoted  to  the  slave 
trade  was  called  the  Jesus,  and  the  first  American, 
built  at  Marblehead,  was  named  the  Desire.  What 
contrasts  their  names  and  their  commerce  suggest! 
It  is  unnecessary  to  state  that  enormous  profits 
were  made  in  the  horrible  traffic.  Where  was  the 
New  England  conscience  in  those  days?  But  let 
all  this  be  as  it  may,  long  before  the  period  dealt 
with  in  this  biography  two  mighty  and  noble-browed 
advocates,  Sympathy  and  Justice,  had  appealed  in 
behalf  of  the  poor  slave  to  the  heart  of  the  world, 
and  a  movement  backed  by  the  finer  instincts  of 
our  natures  had  set  in  to  put  an  end  to  slavery. 
Virginia  at  an  early  day,  under  the  influence  of  that 
appeal,  came  within  one  vote  of  abolishing  the  curse 
and  shame,  and  many,  like  John  Randolph  of  Roa- 
noke,  emancipated  their  slaves.  Unfortunately  for 


HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY  39 

Virginia  and  her  sister  States,  that  movement  toward 
emancipation  was  checked  by  two  causes  and  at 
last  died  out:  first,  an  invention  for  clearing  the 
cotton  fibre  from  the  seed  thereby  making  slave 
labor  very  profitable;  and  second,  resentment  over 
the  abuse  and  obloquy  which  opponents  of  slavery 
heaped  on  the  slaveholder. 

In  the  beginning,  the  condemnation  of  slavery 
was  predicated  on  gentle  and  holy  morals,  but  after 
the  unnatural  alliance  of  hate,  obloquy  and  religion, 
the  movement  in  the  North  changed  rapidly  into  an 
inveterate  crusade  against  slavery  led  on  by  what 
was  known  as  the  Abolition  Party  whose  news 
papers  by  1838,  the  Liberator,  Emancipator,  Phil 
anthropist,  National  Enquirer  and  New  York  Evan 
gelist  were  reaching  the  homes  of  thousands  in  the 
North.  It  has  long  been  observed  that  an  issue 
involving  a  moral  question,  like  that  those  periodi 
cals  were  advocating,  breeds  bigoted  radicals  who 
through  temperament  invariably  make  everything 
personal  and  become,  sooner  or  later,  combative  and 
abusive  toward  whoever  challenges  the  wisdom  of 
their  views  or  refrains  from  joining  in  carrying 
them  out. 

A  survey  of  those  time-yellowing  sheets  will  dis 
close  that  their  columns  were  filled  with  sermons, 
addresses  at  conventions,  editorials,  and  letters 
from  farmers  who  tilled  the  rock-strewn  winter-wind 
swept  fields  of  New  England,  all  breathing  a  ferocious 


40  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

intolerance  not  only  against  slavery,  but  against 
the  slaveholder  himself;  some  going  so  far  in  their 
wrought-up  state  of  mind  as  to  suggest,  approve 
and  encourage  an  insurrection  of  the  slaves.  That 
the  appalling  Santo  Domingo  insurrection,  when  gray- 
haired,  trembling  old  age,  and  babyhood  in  the  cradle 
with  its  smiles  and  innocence  were  all  left  butchered, 
should  not  have  drowned  the  cry  of  mercy  in  their 
natures,  is  simply  astounding,  for  many  were  not 
only  intelligent,  but  when  not  on  the  slavery 
question,  reasonable  and  charitable. 

The  present  generation  can  have  only  a  laint 
notion  of  the  intensity  of  the  personal  antipathy  to 
slaveholders  and  aversion  from  the  South  generally 
by  the  members  of  the  Abolition  Party. 

Naturally  enough  this  antipathy  was  reciprocated 
with  full  measure  of  scorn  and  disdain  by  the  slave 
holder,  and  indeed  by  the  poorest  whites  of  the 
pineclad  sand  hills  and  swamps  of  the  South. 

Without  a  due  appreciation  of  that  long  and  deep- 
rooted  aversion  and  estrangement  of  the  sections, 
beginning,  as  we  are  convinced  it  did,  away  back  in 
old  England  from  a  marked  difference  in  the  point 
of  view  of  the  part  religion  should  play  in  social  and 
governmental  life,  the  conflict  between  the  shrewd 
ness  of  a  commercial  and  the  rustic  simplicity  of  an 
agricultural  life,  and  at  last  by  that  inborn  hatred  of 
aristocracy,  intensified  by  the  acknowledged  and 
actual  social  and  political  preeminence  of  the  South 


HIS   LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  41 

—  we  say  that  without  a  full  appreciation  of  all  the 
above  facts, —  the  War  of  the  Rebellion  will  not, 
we  fear,  be  fully  understood,  or  the  leaders,  North 
and  South,  be  duly,  be  fairly  portrayed  against  the 
stormy  background. 


CHAPTER  IV 

DAVIS'  emergence  from  obscurity  and  the  loneli 
ness  of  the  wilderness  came  about  in  this  way. 
Two  ambitious  Whigs,  owing  to  the  overwhelming 
majorities  cast  by  their  party  in  Warren  County, 
were  candidates  for  a  seat  in  the  Mississippi  legis 
lature  of  1843.  The  Democrats,  encouraged  by  the 
rivalry  between  the  Whigs,  put  a  candidate  in  the 
field,  but  within  a  week  of  the  election  became  dis 
satisfied  with  him  and  dropped  him,  and  asked 
Davis  to  take  his  place.  He  accepted,  and  at  once 
the  Whigs,  scenting  danger,  forced  one  of  their  candi 
dates  to  withdraw  and  Davis,  instead  of  leading 
followers  inspired  with  prospective  triumph,  led  a 
forlorn  hope. 

The  Whigs,  to  make  victory  sure,  called  on  Pren- 
tiss,  the  greatest  orator  of  his  day,  and  whose  fame 
still  lingers  along  the  lower  Mississippi  like  the  glow 
on  the  clouds  from  a  setting  sun,  to  come  to  their 
aid.  Moreover,  they  arranged  for  a  joint  debate 
between  him  and  Davis,  who  had  never  made  a 
political  speech  in  his  life.  He  was  defeated  as  he 
expected  to  be,  although  he  cut  down  materially 
the  usual  Whig  majority.  But  he  had  held  his  own 
so  well  with  the  famous  orator,  that  the  next  year 

42 


HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY  43 

he  was  sent  as  a  delegate  to  a  Democratic  state 
convention  for  the  selection  of  a  presidential  candi 
date.  He  there  made^,a  speech  in  behalf  of  Calhoun, 
from  whom  as  Secretary  of  War  under  Monroe  he 
had  received  his  appointment  to  West  Point,  that 
brought  the  convention  to  its  feet  with  wild  applause, 
and  the  same  fall  he  was  named  an  elector-at-large 
on  the  Polk  and  Dallas  ticket.  Davis  canvassed  the 
State  from  one  end  to  the  other  and  was  elected. 
His  readiness,  breadth  and  clearness  of  view,  aug 
mented  by  a  manifest  sincerity  and  depth  of  con 
viction  —  he  never  harangued  —  and  that  charm  of 
voice  and  manner  that  stayed  with  him  to  the  end, 
so  won  the  hearts,  not  only  of  the  lank  " crackers" 
in  the  piny  woods,  but  those  of  his  fellow  cultivated 
planters,  that  in  the  following  summer,  1845,  they 
elected  him  by  a  vote  of  the  State-at-large  to 
Congress. 

During  the  campaign  the  question  of  the  payment 
of  the  bonds  issued  by  the  State  for  the  stock  of 
certain  banks  having  split  both  parties,  the  leader 
of  the  Democratic  party  announced  that  no  anti- 
repudiator  should  have  his  vote  or  influence,  where 
upon  Davis  wrote  a  pamphlet  against  repudiation. 

His  friends  advised,  implored  him  not  to  make  it 
public,  but  he  went  at  once  to  the  repudiator  leader, 
a  Mr.  Briscoe,  and  showed  it  to  him.  "  Didn't  you 
know,"  observed  Briscoe,  "I  said  I  would  not  vote 
for  any  man  holding  these  opinions?"  "Yes," 


44  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

replied  Davis,  "and  therefore  I  thought  you  ought 
to  know  mine." 

That  Briscoe  in  the  end  voted  for  him  is  not  of 
importance,  but  in  the  light  of  this  evidence  we  will 
leave  it  to  any  fair-minded  man  whether  or  not  the 
charge  made  with  trumpets,  so  to  speak,  against 
Davis  when  the  Confederacy  was  trying  to  nego 
tiate  a  loan  in  England,  and  reiterated  long  after 
the  war  was  over  by  Roosevelt,  the  most  frequent 
and  shrillest  crowing  cock  on  the  roost  and  off  the 
roost,  in  politics  of  his  day,  was  justified.- 

Of  all  the  many  charges  brought  against  him  not 
one  ever  struck  deeper  or  wounded  him  more  sorely; 
and  again  and  again,  as  he  trod  the  path  of  his  old 
age,  he  protested  and  reprotested  this  honor-tainting 
accusation. 

Before  entering  upon  that  campaign,  Davis  had 
become  engaged  to  the  daughter  of  W.  B.  Ho  well, 
whose  plantation  home  was  on  a  bluff  near  Natchez. 
Their  acquaintance  began  while  she  was  on  a  visit 
with  his  brother's  family  at  " Hurricane,"  conducted 
thither  by  a  warm  friend  of  her  father,  Judge  George 
Winchester,  a  distinguished  lawyer,  originally  from 
Salem,  Massachusetts,  who  had  become  a  slave 
holder  like  his  fellow  Northerners,  Sergeant  Prentiss 
of  Maine,  Gen.  John  J.  Quitman  of  New  York,  and 
Robert  J.  Walker  of  Pennsylvania,  leading  spirits 
in  the  defense  and  rights  of  slavery  and  strong  advo- 
cators  of  the  annexation  of  Texas.  But  surely  in 


HIS  LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  45 

the  judge's  case,  whatsoever  might  have  been  his 
Puritanic  notions  of  slavery,  a  wide  plantation  on 
the  Mississippi  with  cotton  fields  in  bloom  was  a 
very  different  thing  from  a  mournful  hillside  farm 
with  its  stunted  cedars  on  Cape    Ann.  The  judge, 
I  have  no  doubt,  fully  appreciating  the  difference, 
luxuriated  in  the  contrast  and  had  no  compunctions 
about  the  institution,  sweetly  as  might  his  boyhood's 
memory  cherish  the  church  bells  of  Salem  and  the 
beams  of  Baker's  Island  lights  in  its  harbor.    But, 
in  a  contest    between    morals  and  wealth  with  its 
ease,   distinction  and  freedom  from  care  for  a  seat 
at  the  right  hand  of  our  conscience,  the  chances  I 
think,  and  am  sorry  to  say  so,  are  heavy  in  favor  of 
the  latter;  and  yet  I  have  no  misgiving  that  the  old 
judge  was  a  right  companionable,  good-hearted  New 
Englander,  notwithstanding  he  turned  slaveholder. 
Here  is  the  first  letter  of  his  charge,  Miss  Howell, 
to  her  mother.    "  Today  Uncle  Joe  [Joseph  Emory 
Davis]  sent,  by  his  younger  brother  [did  you  know 
he  had  one?]  an  urgent  invitation  to  me  to  go  at 
once  to  the  '  Hurricane.'    [She  had  stopped  on  her 
way  at  the  plantation  of  Mrs.  David  McCaleb,  Mr. 
Joseph  Davis'   eldest   daughter.]    I  do   not  know 
whether  this  Mr.  Jefferson  Davis  is  young  or  old. 
He  looks  both  at  times;  but  I  believe  he  is  old,  for 
from  what  I  hear  he  is  only  two  years  younger  than 
you  are.   He  impresses  me  as  a  remarkable  kind  of 
man,  but  of  uncertain  temper,  and  has  a  way  of 


46  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

taking  for  granted  that  everybody  agrees  with  him 
when  he  expresses  an  opinion,  which  offends  me; 
yet  he  is  most  agreeable  and  has  a  peculiarly  sweet 
voice  and  a  winning  manner  of  asserting  himself. 
The  fact  is,  he  is  the  kind  of  person  I  should  expect 
to  rescue  one  from  a  mad  dog  at  any  risk,  but  to 
insist  upon  a  stoical  indifference  to  the  fright  after 
ward.  I  do  not  think  I  shall  ever  like  him  as  I  do 
his  brother  Joe.  Would  you  believe  it,  he  is  refined 
and  cultivated,  and  yet  a  Democrat!" 

Having  been  born  and  bred  a  Democrat  this  sur 
prise  of  the  Whig  miss  over  Jeff's  refinement  and 
cultivation  "and  yet  a  Democrat!"  brings  a  smile. 
For  all  that,  those  discerning  young  eyes  had  not 
failed  to  note  the  one  main  weakness  in  his  char 
acter,  namely,  taking  it  for  granted  that  whosoever 
had  thought  the  matter  out  as  he  had  thought  it 
out  must  have  reached  the  same  conclusion  as  he 
had  reached.  It  was  a  trait,  notwithstanding  the 
good  breeding  with  which  it  was  manifested,  that  she 
did  not  like,  nor  did  any  of  his  political  adversaries 
ever  like.  But  in  this  connection  let  me  venture  to 
say  that  tenacity  and  obstinacy  of  opinion  are  dis 
tinctively  a  product  of  the  wilderness,  as  well  as 
the  solitude  of  a  cloistral  life  at  a  university,  or 
social  isolation.  Men  who  have  reached  conclusions 
under  such  conditions  are,  as  a  rule,  willful  and  un 
manageable;  Mr.  Lincoln  —  Davis'  reverse  historic 
counterpart  —  was  no  exception  to  this  rule;  for 


HIS   LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  47 

with  equal  pertinacity  he  held  to  his  opinions,  but 
he  was  vastly  more  sagacious  in  their  presentation 
and  defense. 

In  the  spring  of  1845,  Jefferson  Davis  and  Miss 
Howell  were  married  at  her  home  in  Natchez;  and 
when  Davis  took  the  boat  at  Vicksburg  with  his 
faithful  servant,  James  Pemberton,  for  the  wedding, 
lo!  who  should  be  aboard  but  General  Taylor  on 
his  way  to  New  Orleans  to  take  command  of  the 
troops  destined  for  the  Mexican  border.  Davis  had 
not  seen  or  heard  from  him  since  he  left  Prairie  du 
Chien  some  ten  years  gone  by  and  keen  was  his 
pleasure  when  Taylor  greeted  him  with  spontaneous 
cordiality;  and  as  they  journeyed  on,  their  old-time 
relations  of  mutual  regard  and  esteem  were  resumed. 
The  good  angels  are  near  nations  and  individuals 
when,  under  reconciliation's  gracious  powers,  the 
warm  hand  is  reached  out  again  and  the  eye  beams 
again  with  the  old-time  friendship. 

This  interview  with  Taylor  must  have  made  the 
day  doubly  happy  for  Davis,  and  I  have  no  doubt 
his  heart  wasllighter  therefor  as  he  reached  the  door 
of  his  bride's  plantation  home,  its  servants  in  their 
best  bib  and  tucker,  the  air  filled  with  the  fragrance 
of  the  wild  grape,  yellow  jessamine  and  magnolia. 

Late  that  autumn,  Davis  and  his  wife,  who  had 
soft,  liquid,  dark  eyes,  a  voice  of  Southern  charm  and 
was  a  ready,  pleasing  talker,  went  to  Washington  and 
on  December  8,  1845,  he  took  his  seat  in  Congress. 


CHAPTER  V 

As  I  have  taken,  in  the  preceding  pages,  some  pains 
to  set  forth  Jefferson  Davis'  surroundings  on  the 
plantation,  convinced  that  in  his  case  and  that  of 
every  man  who  makes  a  mark  in  the  world,  they 
leave  indelible  traces  of  their  handiwork  in  intellec 
tual  development  and  are  the  sources  of  certain 
fadeless  lines  in  character,  I  shall  dwell  for  a  moment 
on  his  new  surroundings  and  some  of  the  issues 
engrossing  the  attention  of  Congress. 

There  were  four  great  figures  masterful  in  mind, 
personality  and  achievement  with  whom  he  was 
brought  face  to  face,  John  Quincy  Adams,  Clay, 
Webster  and  Calhoun.  In  the  eyes  of  Davis,  Cal- 
houn  was  easily  the  greatest,  but  from  the  viewpoint 
of  historic  perpetuity  he  now  stands  off  and  alone 
from  them  all  in  the  deep  shadow  that  slavery  cast; 
while  Clay,  on  the  contrary,  stands  in  the  warm 
beams  of  a  life-long  desire  to  reconcile  the  sections, 
Adams  in  the  perpetual  light  that  is  shed  from  his 
diary,  and  Webster  in  that  of  his  vision  of  the 
Union's  glorified  destiny,  a  vision  that  rallied  the 
forces  of  the  North  to  accept  the  challenge  for  its 
disruption  and  with  a  result  that  we  all  know. 

In  Congress  and  the  Cabinet  were  many  able, 

48 


HIS  LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  49 

strong  men.  Seward  whose  fame  will  last  welded  as 
it  is  to  Lincoln's,  Giddings  of  Ohio,  the  Abolition 
champion  with  glowing  white  teeth  and  defiant 
personal  courage;  Chase  and  Toombs  both  handsome, 
large,  striking  men  who  were  destined  alike  to  life 
long  disappointed  ambition,  —  Chase  to  be  the 
leader  of  the  North  instead  of  Lincoln,  Toombs  the 
presidency  of  the  Confederacy  instead  of  Davis,  - 
Crittenden,  the  venerable,  well-bred  gentleman  of 
Kentucky,  Winthrop  of  Massachusetts  wearing 
her  mantle  of  social  and  intellectual  aristocracy, 
Stephens  of  Georgia,  and  many  others  who  played 
mighty  parts  in  the  Rebellion.  What  a  contrast  to 
the  quiet  loneliness  and  undisputed  sway  of  a 
plantation  on  the  Mississippi! 

Mrs.  Davis  in  her  Memoirs  throws  this  light  upon 
the  outset  of  her  husband's  Congressional  life.  "He 
visited  very  little,  studied  until  two  or  three  o'clock 
in  the  morning,  and,  with  my  assistance,  did  all  his 
writing,  franking  documents,  letters,  etc."  This 
would  seem  to  indicate  that  he  did  not  trust  to  the 
inspiration  of  the  moment  to  discuss  a  question  in 
Congress. 

She  further  says  that  the  only  one  he  visited 
beside  old  army  friends,  was  Calhoun,  and  as  we 
know,  by  following  in  his  steps  they  led  him  to 
Calhoun's  place  in  the  leadership  of  the  South  and 
at  last  to  manacles  at  Fort  Monroe. 

Early  in  that  session  he  made  a  speech,  but  not  a 


50  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

long  one,  on  the  Oregon  boundary  issue.  Savage,  a 
newspaper  reporter  and  author,  says  of  it  that  when 
Davis  began  his  speech,  — and  we  easily  catch  the 
vibrant  tones  of  his  carrying  voice,  —  Southern 
friends  of  mine  who  heard  him  often  have  told  me 
they  were  a  combination  of  the  trumpet  and  harp  - 
Adams  drew  near  him  for  it  was  his  habit  to  listen 
carefully  to  the  first  set  speech  of  a  new  member, 
apparently  to  discover  if  it  were  worth  while  for 
him  to  pay  attention  the  next  time  the  speaker  had 
the  floor.  "At  the  close  of  the  speech,"  goes  on 
Savage,  "Adams  crossed  over  to  some  friends  and 
said,  'That  young  man,  gentlemen,  is  no  ordinary 
man.  He  will  make  his  mark  yet,  mind  me/  ; 

The  country  at  that  time  was  in  high  fever,  from 
one  end  to  the  other,  over  the  admission  of  Texas 
by  joint  resolution  of  Congress  after  a  prolonged 
debate  marked  with  sustained  earnestness  and 
extreme  acrimony;  for  slavery,  as  usual,  was  at 
the  fore  and  charged  with  reaching  out,  as  in  the 
Louisiana  Purchase,  for  more  territory  to  increase 
her  power  in  the  national  councils;  when,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  as  Time's  outgoing  tide  has  revealed, 
it  was  not  slavery,  but  the  Genius  of  our  country 
making  her  way  to  the  Pacific  in  fulfillment  of  her 
preordained  destiny  yet  meeting  a  furious  New 
England's  resistance  at  every  step. 

Adams,  who  led  the  opposition  to  the  annexation 
of  Texas,  angered  over  defeat,  prophesied  that  it 


HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY  51 

would  be  the  death  of  the  Union.  He  is  in  his  grave, 
and,  lo!  today  his  New  England's  cotton  mills 
rejoice  as  they  spin  Texas  cotton,  and  the  country's 
ships,  propelled  by  Texas  oil,  sail  proudly  bearing 
the  products  of  their  looms  across  the  sea. 

The  fires  of  this  discussion  over  slavery  were  still 
smoking  when  up  flamed  a  long-smoldering  dispute 
with  Great  Britain  over  the  Oregon  boundary. 
Both  countries  were  in  bad  humor.  Parliament  had 
voted  unanimously  on  a  call  from  Peel  for  supplies 
to  get  ready  for  conflict,  and  the  people  beyond  the 
Alleghenies  were  longing  to  cross  swords  with 
England. 

" Unfortunately,"  said  Davis  at  the  beginning  of 
his  speech,  "the  opinion  has  gone  forth  that  no 
politician  dared  to  be  the  advocate  of  peace  when 
the  question  of  war  is  mooted.  That  will  be  an  evil 
hour  —  when  it  shall  be  in  the  power  of  any  dema 
gogue  or  fanatic  to  raise  a  war  clamor  and  control 
the  legislation  of  the  country.  The  evils  of  war 
must  fall  upon  the  people,  and  with  them  the  war 
feeling  should  originate.  We,  their  representatives, 
are  but  a  mirror  to  reflect  the  light,  and  never  should 
become  a  torch  to  fire  the  pile." 

He  then  went  on  and  discussed  —  and  we  think 
ably  and  fairly  —  the  reasonableness  of  the  claims 
of  the  disputed  boundary  lines,  recommending, 
however  strong  our  case  might  be  theoretically,  yet 
in  view  of  all  the  consequences,  we  should  accede 


52  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

to  an  honorable  compromise.  As  slavery  had  been 
thrust  into  the  discussion,  as  in  all  questions  of  a 
national  character  after  the  rise  of  the  Abolition 
Party,  and  the  usual  sheet  lightning  had  flashed 
from  the  low-down  war-gathering  cloud  of  the  sec 
tions,  Davis  before  he  closed,  touched  the  chords 
that  bound  the  Union;  how  in  the  hearts  of  North 
and  South  the  names  of  the  battlefields  of  the  Revo 
lution  were  mingled  in  pride  and  affection,  and 
exclaimed.  "  What  Southern  man  would  wish  it  less 
by  one  of  the  Northern  names  of  which  it  is  com 
posed?  Or  where  is  he,  gazing  on  the  obelisk, 
[referring  to  Bunker  Hill  Monument]  that  rises 
from  the  ground  made  sacred  by  the  blood  of  Warren, 
would  feel  his  patriot's  pride  suppressed  by  local 
jealousy?  Type  of  the  men,  the  event,  the  purpose  it 
commemorates  .  .  .  pointing  like  a  finger  to  the 
sources  of  noblest  thought,  a  beacon  of  freedom,  it 
guides  the  present  generation  to  contemplate  the 
scene  where  Massachusetts  and  Virginia,  as  stronger 
brothers  of  the  family,  stood  foremost  to  defend  our 
common  rights. "  This  reference  to  the  monument 
overlooking  Boston  must  have  pleased  Adams. 

It  is  not  my  purpose  or  desire  to  encumber  this 
narrative  with  speeches,  but  this  one  reveals  what  I 
believe  to  be  the  real  Jefferson  Davis,  a  man  of 
moral  courage,  of  standards  far  above  the  level  of 
the  demagogue  and  fanatic,  and  gifted  with  a  rare 
ornament,  namely,  a  mind  where  reason  and  imagi- 


HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY  53 

nation  both  play  around  the  subjects  that  appeal 
to  it. 

The  speech,  which  has  just  been  referred  to,  was 
made  on  the  sixth  of  February,  and  in  May  he  was 
appointed  on  a  committee  empowered  to  ask  for 
State  papers  and  reports  on  some  outrageous 
charges  against  Webster  in  the  use  of  secret  funds 
while  Secretary  of  State  under  Tyler,  alleging  that 
not  only  had  he  used  those  funds  to  corrupt  the 
press,  but  was  a  " delinquent  and  defaulter"  to  the 
sum  of  over  five  thousand  dollars. 

This  scandalous  resolution,  to  the  disgrace  of 
Congress,  was  carried  by  a  vote  of  one  hundred 
thirty-six  yeas  to  twenty-eight  nays.  But,  we  must 
remember  that  Webster  loomed  as  a  candidate  of 
the  Whigs  for  the  next  presidency,  that  greatness 
breeds  envy,  and  that  in  both  parties  there  are 
always  shoals  of  cheap,  shifty  politicians.  There 
was  no  lack  of  them  in  the  Democratic  party,  who, 
for  political  advantage,  were  base  enough  to  hope 
the  committee's  report,  which  was  practically 
written  by  Davis,  although  if  it  in  the  main  should 
exonerate  Webster  yet  by  implication  would  leave 
a  stain.  The  night  before  the  committee  reported, 
one  of  them  went  to  see  Davis  and  hinted  that  he 
hoped  it  would  not  "white-wash"  Webster.  Davis 
fired  up  over  the  dishonorable  suggestion,  and  said, 
"No  one  could  deprecate  his  [Webster's]  policy 
more  than  I  do,"  but,  that  he  would  not  make  a 


54  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

false  and  partisan  report,  or  parley  with  his  sense 
of  justice  and  honor. 

Webster,  after  the  finding  was  submitted  exon 
erating  him  completely,  went  to  see  Davis  and 
expressed  in  warm  terms  his  appreciation  of  the 
manly  way  he  had  dealt  with  the  matter.  Later  he 
called  on  Mrs.  Davis  and  invited  them  to  visit  him 
at  Marshfield. 

As  the  spirits  of  the  dead  in  their  transcendent 
rest  are  free  from  all  mortality's  bickerings,  I  am 
fain  to  believe  that  Webster's  met  that  of  Davis 
with  a  warm  hand  at  the  end  of  its  upward  flight, 
for  as  Bacon  says,  "The  nobler  a  soul  is,  the  more 
objects  of  compassion  it  hath." 

Not  long  after  this  report  on  the  Webster  charges, 
a  resolution  of  thanks  to  Taylor  and  his  men  for 
victories  won  over  Mexican  forces  on  the  Texas 
border  was  offered  in  Congress.  Davis  made  a 
fervent  speech  in  its  favor,  saying  that,  as  a  friend 
of  the  Army,  his  heart  rejoiced  that  there  was  a 
disposition  in  the  House  to  deal  justly  and  generously 
with  the  defenders  of  the  country's  colors;  that  too 
often  and  too  long  had  they  had  to  listen  to  harsh 
and  invidious  reflections  on  the  Army  and  the 
accomplished  officers  who  commanded  it;  that  now, 
as  an  American,  his  heart  in  response  to  whatsoever 
illustrates  our  national  character  or  adds  glory  to 
the  name,  rejoiced  at  the  recent  triumphs.  Yet  it 
was  no  more  than  he  expected,  or  when  occasions 


HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY  55 

offer,  it  would  achieve  again.  And  then  in  fine 
strain  he  went  on,  —  "It  was  the  triumph  of  Ameri 
can  courage,  professional  skill,  and  that  patriotic 
pride  which  blooms  in  the  breast  of  every  educated 
soldier," — a  simile  that  must  have  been  pleasing  to  the 
ear  of  his  stern  old  Alma  Mater  on  the  Hudson,  and 
as  one  of  his  fellow  graduates,  it  pleases  my  ear  too. 

Davis,  continuing  his  speech,  spoke  of  a  bastioned 
field  work  and  how,  through  the  science  of  its  con 
struction,  it  had  stood  bombardment  practically 
harmless  while  its  fire  had  crumbled  the  stone  walls 
of  Matamoras;  and  then,  turning  to  a  member  of 
the  House,  who  had  denounced  the  Academy  and 
its  graduates,  made  an  ill-fated  and  unmitigated 
blunder  by  asking  him  if  he  believed  a  blacksmith 
or  a  tailor  could  have  secured  like  results. 

Now  it  so  happened  that  the  Congressman  who  had 
made  the  charges  and  had  been  a  blacksmith  —  but 
Davis  did  not  know  it  —  retorted,  not  angrily,  being 
blessed  with  a  genial  temper,  but  well,  saying  in 
effect,  that  the  days  when  he  was  the  companion  of 
the  blazing  forge  and  the  ringing  anvil  were  proud 
days,  and  moreover  that  General  Greene  of  Revolu 
tionary  fame  had  been  a  blacksmith  also.  Andrew 
Johnson,  however,  Lincoln's  successor  in  the  Presi 
dency,  who  had  been  a  tailor  in  his  youth  and  had 
had  to  fight  his  way  up  against  a  domineering  class 
founded  on  wealth  and  family,  fretting  under  Davis' 
unwarrantable  yet  unintentional  aspersion,  rose  the 


56  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

next  day  and  gritted  out:  "He  knew  we  had  an 
illegitimate,  swaggering,  bastard,  scrub  aristocracy 
who  assumed  to  know  a  great  deal,  but  when  the 
flimsy  veil  of  pretension  was  torn  from  it,  was 
shown  to  possess  neither  talents  nor  information," 
and  declaring  that  when  a  blow  was  struck  upon 
the  class  he  had  sprung  from,  "  either  direct  or  by 
innuendo,  he  would  resent  it." 

Davis,  in  reply,  said  with  deep  earnestness  that 
his  reference  to  the  tailor  and  the  blacksmithing 
trades  was  wholly,  wholly  misunderstood,  that  he 
merely  wanted  to  show  that  an  education,  either  by 
teaching  or  by  experience  was  necessary  in  every 
professional  career  and  that  once  for  all  he  would 
say,  "that  if  he  knew  himself,  he  was  incapable  of 
wantonly  wounding  the  feelings  or  of  making  invidi 
ous  reflections  upon  the  origin  or  occupation  of  any 
man."  But  all  to  no  avail,  so  far  as  Johnson  was 
concerned;  his  feelings  had  been  hurt,  and  in  all 
likelihood  it  was  not  the  first  time  by  the  speech 
or  bearing  of  some  of  his  Southern  colleagues,  not 
one  of  whom,  by  the  way,  had  in  combination  of 
manner,  tone  and  ability  more  of  the  aristocrat 
than  Davis. 

Yet,  how  truly  and  thoroughly  this  controversial 
incident,  so  unexpected  and  unhappy,  illustrates  a 
trait  in  human  nature,  namely,  that  the  composure 
of  a  man  sure  of  his  station,  born  with  a  certain 
austerity  of  manner  and  gifted  with  power  of  easy 


HIS  LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  57 

and  telling  speech,  always  shoots  a  chilliness  that 
provokes  combative  mediocrity  whose  chief  weapons 
are  obloquy  and  reproach.  That  was  Davis'  mis 
fortune,  and  although  he  was  without  a  single 
affectation  or  lacking  a  heart  for  the  warmest  friend 
ships,  yet  his  combination  of  fine  manners,  cool 
self-control  and  certain  dignity  that  stood  off  unwar 
ranted  familiarity,  was  the  source  of  much  of  the 
hatred  which  neither  punishment  nor  death  appeased. 

I  have  said  that  his  blunder  in  bringing  in  the 
blacksmith  and  the  tailor  was  ill-fated.  What  I 
had  in  mind  was  this  —  its  probable  contribution  in 
establishing  Johnson's  final  antagonism  to  the 
Confederacy  which  made  East  Tennessee  practically 
loyal,  and  by  its  appeal  for  defense  from  the  North 
threatened  the  life  of  the  Confederacy  at  every  stage 
of  its  four  years'  struggle. 

Well,  Andrew  Johnson  is  buried  among  the  stead 
fast  friends  of  his  obscure  youth,  and  the  mountains  of 
East  Tennessee  with  their  blooming  laurel  and  moon- 
glittering  tumbling  streams  proudly  stand  guard 
in  majestic  silence  over  his  and  the  graves  of  them 
all  —  those  who  fought  for  the  South  and  those  who 
laid  down  their  lives  for  the  North  —  and  strangely 
enough,  before  death  overtook  him  the  party  whom 
he  had  opposed,  in  its  vindictive  pursuit  of  political 
booty,  hated  him  as  they  hated  Davis,  and  thus  at 
last  the  humble  tailor  and  the  aristocratic  planter 
met  on  the  same  level. 


58  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

Whatever  hold  that  unfortunate  clash  with 
Johnson  may  have  had  on  Davis'  mind  was  quickly 
broken  by  the  United  States  declaring  war  on 
Mexico,  and  the  arrival  soon  thereafter  of  a  special 
messenger  notifying  him  that  he  had  been  chosen 
Colonel  of  the  First  Mississippi  Rifles,  who  had 
enlisted  at  once  on  the  call  for  volunteers. 

Davis  gladly  accepted  the  Colonelcy,  and  after 
securing  for  his  regiment  the  best  arm  of  the  day, 
the  Whitney  gun,  set  off  for  Vicksburg,  pursuing 
his  way  by  stage  over  the  Alleghenies.  June,  with 
her  sunshine  dome,  daisies,  green  leaves  and  gently 
drifting  clouds  was  living  her  day  of  matchless 
charm. 

A  family  council  including  James  Pemberton 
was  held,  at  which  it  was  decided  that  James  should 
stay  at  home  and  look  after  the  plantation  and  Mrs. 
Davis.  That  settled,  Davis  selected  an  Arabian 
from  his  stables,  and  with  Jim  Green,  one  of  his 
brother's  people  for  servant  in  Pemberton's  place, 
set  off  to  join  his  regiment  in  camp  at  New  Orleans. 

Within  a  few  days  the  regiment  sailed  and  landed 
on  a  sandy  beach  not  far  from  Point  Isabel  on  the 
coast  of  Texas,  where  Davis  at  once  began  to  drill 
his  men  and  conduct  schools  of  instruction  for 
commissioned  and  non-commissioned  officers.  Sub 
sequently  they  moved  to  Comargo  on  the  Rio 
Grande. 

While  in  camp  some  of  his  men  raided  a  corn 


HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY  59 

field,  the  ears  in  full  silk  offering  a  sweet  change 
from  the  army  ration  of  hard  tack  and  bacon. 
Davis,  on  hearing  of  the  wreck  of  the  poor  settler's 
field,  was  deeply  provoked  and  at  once  assembled 
the  men,  rebuking  them  sharply  for  their  conduct, 
admonishing  them  that  war  against  an  enemy  did 
not  allow  the  despoiling  or  destruction  of  private 
property,  and  warning  them  that  henceforth  any 
violation  of  this  rule  would  meet  with  severe  pun 
ishment.  The  damages  his  men  had  done  he  paid 
out  of  his  own  pocket  to  the  farmer. 

In  this  connection  it  may  with  propriety,  we 
think,  be  recorded,  that  not  a  single  article  or 
trophy  of  any  kind  was  brought  home  by  the  men 
of  his  regiment;  moreover,  all  the  venerable  bejew 
elled  tinsels  of  churches  and  cathedrals  were  left 
untouched,  and  we  dare  say  that  if  these  old-time 
revered  objects  of  devotion  with  their  strings  of 
pearls,  rubies  and  diamonds  could  speak,  they 
would  testify  with  subdued,  fervent  gratitude  to 
this  fact,  at  least  so  far  as  the  First  Mississippi 
Rifles  were  concerned.  What  a  contrast  to  the 
conduct  of  some  of  our  men  in  the  Civil  War  and 
the  Germans  in  the  World  War,  lugging  home 
family  treasures,  silverware,  pictures,  and  what 
not! 

Surely  Jefferson  Davis'  record  in  the  Mexican 
War,  so  far  as  dealing  with  individual  enemies  and 
observing  their  rights  was  concerned,  brought  no 


60  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

shame  to  his  country,  and  we  believe  that  the  old 
flag  he  followed  in  those  days  would  declare  with 
pride  that  it  had  no  memory  in  its  folds  of  a  single 
act  by  him  unbecoming  a  soldier  and  a  gentle 
man. 


CHAPTER  VI 

IN  August  General  Taylor,  to  whom  Davis  had 
reported  and  by  whom  he  had  been  received  with 
heartiness,  set  his  forces  in  motion  for  Monterey 
some  hundred  miles  distant  at  a  gap  in  the  Mexican 
mountains.  After  four  or  five  hot  days'  march 
through  a  desolation  of  sand,  chaparral  and  bayonet 
cactus  that  gave  away  at  last  to  smiling  fields  and 
hills  clothed  in  green,  they  reached  the  little  town 
of  Marin,  and  from  one  of  its  belfries  they  could 
see  across  an  intervening,  undulating  valley  some 
twenty-odd  miles  wide,  the  gilded  crosses  of  the 
Cathedral  of  Monterey. 

The  dreamy  old  town,  with  a  population  of  ten 
or  more  thousand,  and  embowered  with  fig,  lemon, 
orange  and  pomegranate  trees,  lay  at  the  mouth  of 
a  pass  through  the  Sierra  Madres  on  the  main 
road  to  the  City  of  Mexico.  Its  streets  were  swept 
by  artillery  posted  and  protected  by  barricades 
where  they  crossed  each  other;  and  the  square  one- 
storied  houses  of  solid  masonry,  with  a  court  in 
the  center  and  iron-barred  windows,  had  flat  roofs 
with  parapets  made  of  sand  bags  for  infantry.  On 
both  sides  of  the  pass  above  the  town  there  were 
fieldworks,  and  fortified  stone  structures  called 

61 


62  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

castles,  flying  the  green,  white  and  red  banner  of 
Mexico.  In  the  suburbs,  at  the  lower  end  of  the 
town,  were  several  small  works,  and  a  little  farther 
along  on  the  bank  of  the  river  was  a  large  grove  of 
pecan  and  live  oaks  into  whose  shade,  after  the 
capture,  some  of  the  weary  storming  troops  retired 
with  their  riddled,  victorious  colors.  Beyond  the 
town  limits  in  the  north  and  standing  alone,  was  a 
fort  known  as  the  Black  Fort,  with  four  salients 
providing  for  eight  guns  each,  walls  very  strong  and 
high  surrounded  by  a  deep  ditch  and  enclosing  two 
or  more  acres. 

After  resting  a  few  days  they  drew  near  to  Mon 
terey  and  Taylor  sent  George  Gordon  Meade,  the 
hero  of  Gettysburg,  who  in  figure,  bearing  and 
temperament  was  very  like  Davis,  to  conduct 
Worth  with  his  division  off  to  the  right  and  attack 
the  batteries  and  detached  works  guarding  the 
pass  through  the  mountains.  This  was  on  a  Sunday 
forenoon  and  Worth  and  his  soldiers  could  hear  the 
bells  of  the  Cathedral  ringing  for  morning  service, 
their  soft  tones  wafting  over  the  line  of  his  march. 
He  reached  his  position  about  twilight  and  went 
into  bivouac. 

The  next  morning,  to  make  a  diversion  in  favor 
of  Worth  who  had  attacked  with  valor  at  an  early 
hour,  Garland's  Brigade,  chiefly  of  Regulars  and 
the  Washington  and  Baltimore  Battalions  of  Militia, 
and  very  gallant  men  they  were,  assailed  the  lower 


HIS  LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  63 

end  of  the  town.  Garland  soon  came  under  a  heavy 
artillery  fire  from  works  not  only  directly  in  his 
front,  but  also  on  his  right  and  rear  from  Black 
Fort,  and  on  his  left  from  Fort  Taneria.  He  was 
repulsed  with  a  death  toll  that  was  heavy,  and 
among  the  dead  were  the  grandsons  of  two  of  the 
signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  showing 
that  their  forefathers'  courageous  blood  was  still 
running. 

Quitman,  commanding  Davis'  brigade  was  then 
ordered  up  and  the  First  Mississippi  Rifles  and  the 
First  Tennessee  attacked  Fort  Taneria.  After  suf 
fering  much  from  artillery  and  musketry  fire,  they 
stormed  and  broke  through,  Davis  abreast  in  going 
over  the  works  and  in  pursuit  of  the  fleeing  enemy. 
On  reaching  the  gate  of  a  fortified  building  they 
forced  it  open  and  its  commanding  officer  surrendered 
his  sword  to  Davis. 

Meanwhile  Butler's  division  had  gone  to  the 
support  of  Garland  and  met  with  like  fortune, 
whereupon  the  Mexican  cavalry  massed  behind  the 
Black  Fort  hurried  out  to  charge  the  broken  infantry. 
Davis  who  had  been  sent  to  Butler's  aid,  arrived 
just  in  time  to  take  position  as  a  rear  guard  for  the 
broken  battalions,  and  seeing  the  oncoming  cavalry, 
faced  his  regiment  about  and  advanced  against 
them.  In  the  engagement  that  followed,  he  repulsed 
the  cavalry,  saving  the  lives  of  many  of  our  limping, 
bleeding  wounded.  Albert  Sidney  Johnston  in  talking 


64  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

with  his  son  long  after  Monterey,  gave  Davis  the 
highest  praise  for  his  conduct. 

The  next  day  and  the  next  the  American  forces 
renewed  the  attack,  fighting  from  house  to  house, 
and  from  all  accounts  Davis  showed  great  personal 
bravery.  One  circumstance  is  worthy  of  mention: 
a  young  Mexican  officer  was  urging  his  men  on 
with  much  gallantry  when  one  of  Davis'  men  levelled 
his  rifle  on  him.  Davis  exclaimed,  "Do  not  shoot 
him!"  The  brave  fellow's  life  was  spared. 

The  next  morning  the  Mexican  general  Ampudia, 
of  French  descent  and  born  in  the  West  Indies, 
asked  for  terms  of  surrender.  Taylor  having  selected 
Davis  for  one  of  the  Commissioners  to  carry  out 
the  terms  of  surrender,  named  an  hour  and  place 
for  a  conference.  An  officer  who  accompanied 
Davis  to  the  meeting  says  that  Ampudia  was  in 
full  uniform,  all  courtesy,  big  speeches,  abundance 
of  shrugs,  nods,  alternate  smiles  and  frowns,  in 
short,  manifesting  the  whole  gamut  of  intercourse 
common  to  Frenchmen.  Taylor,  on  the  contrary, 
was  dumb,  dressed  in  his  best  coat  that  looked  as 
though  it  had  been  through  a  dozen  campaigns,  a 
glazed  oil-cloth  cap,  an  old-fashioned  white  vest  and 
had  the  appearance  of  an  aged  farmer  elected  to  a 
military  command.  When  Ampudia  had  got  through 
boasting  about  the  number  of  troops  he  had  and 
how  he  and  they  would  die  in  their  tracks,  etc., 
Taylor  cocked  his  head  a  little  to  one  side  and,  gently 


HIS   LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY  65 

raising  his  grizzly  eyebrows  so  that  the  dauntless 
little  black  eyes  lurking  beneath  them  might  fall 
directly  upon  the  animated  Mexican,  said  coolly: 
"  General  Ampudia,  we  came  here  to  take  Monterey, 
and  we  are  going  to  do  it  on  such  terms  as  please 
us.  I  wish  you  good  morning/'  and  off  he  went 
leaving  Davis  and  his  colleagues  to  settle  the  terms. 
In  the  end  Davis  wrote  them  and  they  were  gen 
erous,  too  generous,  as  it  turned  out,  to  suit  the 
politicians  in  Washington,  and  Taylor  was  ordered 
to  revoke  them;  but  owing  to  the  long  distance 
the  messenger  had  to  travel  they  had  about  expired 
before  his  arrival.  Taylor,  very  naturally  was 
indignant,  and  felt  he  had  been  dealt  with  unfairly; 
thereupon  Davis  came  to  his  defense  and  his 
colleagues  joined  with  him. 

Mrs.  Davis  unwell,  and  affairs  on  the  plantation 
—  although  James  had  done  his  best —  unsatisfactory 
and  worrying,  the  Colonel  got  a  leave  of  absence 
and  went  home,  taking  with  him  his  war  horse  Tartar 
which  had  shown  intelligence  and  spirit  under  fire. 

Before  returning  to  the  Army,  Davis  made  his 
will,  and  consulted  James  whom  he  wished  to  set  free, 
as  to  its  provisions  in  case  of  his  death.  James 
said  that  he  would  prefer  to  take  care  of  Mrs.  Davis 
while  she  lived,  but  wanted  his  freedom  at  the  end 
of  her  life,  and  the  will  was  so  framed  with  a  bequest 
of  land  or  money  as  he  might  choose. 

On  the  expiration  of  his  leave  of  absence  he  left 


66  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

Tartar  and  took  Richard,  a  bay  with  black  points, 
and  rejoined  the  Army.  The  battle  of  Buena  Vista 
was  fought  shortly  after  his  return,  a  battle  against 
vastly  superior  numbers,  and  every  history  of  that 
engagement  will  tell  you  Davis  with  his  Mississippi 
Rifles  did  as  much  if  not  more  to  win  that  great 
victory  than  any  other  single  command,  although 
there  was  conspicuous  fortitude  and  bravery  dis 
played  by  regulars  and  volunteers  on  all  parts  of 
the  bitterly  contested  field. 

Early  in  the  action  he  was  wounded  seriously  in 
the  right  foot  just  below  the  instep,  the  ball  driving 
a  part  of  his  spur  and  stocking  into  the  wound, 
but  he  did  not  leave  the  field  till  it  was  won.  His 
boot  had  to  be  cut  from  his  foot  and  all  that  night 
a  friend,  Captain  Eustis,  kept  a  stream  of  cold 
water  pouring  over  the  wound.  The  next  morning 
when  it  was  rumored  that  the  enemy  was  about  to 
renew  the  battle,  Davis  ordered  that  he  be  carried 
out  to  the  head  of  his  regiment,  but  during  the 
night  the  enemy  drew  away  silently;  for  two  years 
Davis  was  on  crutches,  the  bone  of  his  foot  exfoliating 
from  time  to  time. 

Many,  many  gallant  men  fell  at  Buena  Vista 
and  among  them  Hardin,  McKee  and  Clay,  a  son 
and  namesake  of  the  great  patriot  Henry  Clay. 
He  had  been  a  year  at  West  Point  with  Davis  and 
when  the  latter  first  met  his  father  in  Washington, 
on  reentering  Congress,  Clay  said:  "My  poor  boy 


HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY  67 

usually  occupied  about  one-half  of  his  letters  home 
in  praising  you." 

Taylor  in  his  official  report  said:  "The  Mississippi 
Rifles  under  Colonel  Davis  were  highly  conspicuous 
for  their  gallantry  and  steadiness.  Brought  into 
action  against  an  immense,  superior  force,  they 
maintained  themselves  for  a  long  time  unsupported. 
Colonel  Davis,  though  severely  wounded,  remained 
in  the  saddle  until  the  close  of  the  action." 

Davis'  regiment's  term  of  service  having  expired 
and  the  time  having  come  for  its  departure,  he 
drew  it  up  in  front  of  General  Taylor  to  say  good-bye. 
The  old  General  exclaimed  almost  choked  with 
emotion,  "Go  on  boys  —  go  on  —  I  can't  speak." 

On  its  arrival  at  New  Orleans  it  received  a  great 
welcome,  and  there  were  many  manifestations  of 
joy  and  pride  as  the  boat  made  its  way  up  the 
river  to  Vicksburg  and  home. 

Davis  had  hardly  reached  his  plantation  when, 
owing  to  the  death  of  a  senator  from  Mississippi, 
the  Governor,  Albert  Gallatin  Brown,  appointed 
him  to  fill  the  vacancy  and  on  crutches  in  December, 
pale  and  emaciated,  he  took  his  seat  in  the  Senate. 


CHAPTER  VII 

ALTHOUGH  the  Mexican  War  was  over,  and  over 
victoriously,  when  Davis  entered  the  Senate,  yet 
the  storm  of  passion  aroused  by  it  had  not  died 
down,  so  deeply  enraged  were  the  foes  of  slavery, 
who,  day  in  and  day  out,  continued  to  denounce 
it  as  a  war,  not  waged  in  the  defense  of  the  country's 
honor  or  rights,  but  for  the  conquest  of  new  terri 
tory  for  the  extension  of  slavery.  So,  when  Webster 
in  discussing  a  bill  for  the  increase  of  the  regular 
army  declared  it  was  an  odious  war,  this  epithet 
brought  Davis  to  his  feet,  and  naturally  enough, 
for  did  not  the  crutches  at  his  side  call  on  him  to 
resent  the  imputation? 

" Odious  for  what?"  he  asked  —  and  we  see  the 
blaze  in  his  blue-gray  eyes  and  we  hear  his  melodious 
voice  keyed  with  impelling  fervor — "Is  it  odious 
on  account  of  the  skill  and  gallantry  with  which  it 
has  been  conducted,  or  because  of  the  humanity, 
the  morality,  the  magnanimous  clemency  which 
have  marked  its  execution?  Where  is  the  odium? 
Where  are  the  evils  brought  upon  us  by  this  '  odious ' 
war?  Where  can  you  point  to  any  inroad  upon  our 
prosperity,  public  or  private,  industrial,  com 
mercial  or  financial  which,  in  any  degree,  can  be 
attributed  to  the  prosecution  of  this  war?" 

68 


HIS   LIFE   AND   PERSONALITY  69 

While  this  warm,  offhand  reply  did  not  go  to 
the  root  of  the  matter  as  it  lay  in  Webster's  mind, 
yet  having  participated  in  that  war,  forbidden 
plundering  and  having  written  the  generous  terms 
for  the  capitulation  of  Monterey,  it  would  have 
been  pusillanimous  in  Davis  to  have  sat  there  and 
kept  his  silence. 

Relative  jo^slayery  during^that  and^subsequen^ 
sessions,  he  said  in  defence  of  the  South  that  it  v> 
had  inherited  and  not  instituted  slavery,  that  it 
had  recognition  in  the  voice  of  the  Constitution 
itself  as  an  element  in  society  and  the  nation's 
political  body,  that  its  extension  into  the  territories 
did  not  add  a  single  soul  to  its  numbers;  that  during 
its  existence  in  the  South  the  slaves  had  risen  to  a 
higher  level  in  intelligence  than  elsewhere  in  the 
world,  and  that  between  them  and  their  masters 
had  grown  home  ties  of  affection  independent  of 
color;  that  the  mere  fact  of  ownership  neither 
established  inhumanity,  obliterated  a  single  one  of 
the  native  feelings,  debauched  the  standard  of 
good  citizenship  or  loyalty  to  the  Republic's  ideals 
in  the  owner  of  slaves  in  the  South  any  more  than 
it  did  in  the  holder  of  slaves  while  slavery  existed 
in  New  England  and  New  York.  He  recognized 
and  regretted  that  the  antithetical  use  of  the  terms 
freedom  and  slavery  as  applied  to  parties  had  had 
a  powerful  influence  in  forming  the  adverse  opinion 
of  the  world  —  for  the  word  " freedom"  was  sweet 


70  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

and  "  slavery "  repugnant  —  as  against  any  claim 
the  South  might  make  for  its  rights  under  the  Con 
stitution,  or  measures  for  its  safety  of  life  or  property 
from  insurrection.  To  the  last  he  held  that,  to 
whatever  extent  the  question  of  slavery  may  have 
served  as  the  occasion,  it  was  really  not  the  heart 
of  the  conflict  between  the  Confederacy  and  the 
Federal  Government. 

In  this  connection  we  will  venture  to  observe,  that 
whosoever  delves  into  the  history  of  those  bygone 
days  so  inflamed  with  bitterness  of  speech  will 
discover  neither  bluster  nor  intemperate  language 
by  Mr.  Davis  in  stating  or  defending  his  views  on 
slavery,  State  Rights  and  public  policy,  or  a  single 
failure  to  treat  his  opponents  with  the  utmost 
courtesy.  We  are  quite  sure,  also,  he  will  find  no 
instance  when  Davis  descended  to  the  level  of  the 
demagogue;  for,  if  ever  a  public  man's  life  was  built 
up  around  sincerity,  that  of  Jefferson  Davis  can  lay 
claim  to  the  tribute. 

During  this  same  tempestuous  session,  what  is 
known  as  the  Clay  Compromise  between  North  and 
South  on  the  question  of  slavery  was  passed.  Davis 
spoke  against  it,  voted  against  it,  and  we  think  he 
was  wrong.  But  he  claimed  that  it  practically 
denied  the  South  its  rights  and,  by  its  prohibition 
of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  it  virtually 
committed  the  Government  to  the  assumption  of 
power  to  destroy  slavery  whenever  it  saw  fit.  If  it 


HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY  71 

could  so  deal  with  that  wrong,  it  could  and  would 
deal  with  whatsoever  might  be  called  thereafter  a 
national  wrong.  We  think,  in  view  of  the  power 
the  Government  now  exercises  over  the  property  as 
well  as  the  habits  of  its  citizens,  he  not  only  had 
logic  on  his  side  but  prophecy  also  with  her  fulfilling 
eye.  But  if  I  had  to  choose  in  behalf  of  mankind 
between  emotion  that  stirred  Clay's  heart  and 
logic  that  ruled  Davis,  for  a  guide  to  the  field  of 
progress  and  great  deeds,  I  should  choose  emotion. 

Let  all  this  be  as  it  may,  there  was  an  incident 
during  the  heated  debate  which  is  worth  recording. 
Near  the  end  of  the  discussion  during  which  the 
venerable  Union-loving  Clay  had  made  heart-reach 
ing,  eloquent  appeals  in  favor  of  the  measure,  he 
turned  toward  Davis  and  said,  "  Allow  me  to  say 
to  the  Senators  from  the  South  and  to  my  friend 
from  Mississippi,  if  he  will  allow  me  to  apply  that 
expression  to  him,  which  I  do  with  most  profound 
truth  and  sincerity,  for  he  is  not  only  my  friend, 
but  he  was  also  the  friend  of  one  who  is  no  more." 
Overcome  by  emotion,  Clay  could  not  speak  and 
bowing  his  head,  whitened  with  the  snow  of  age, 
his  eyes  were  seen  to  fill  with  tears;  after  regaining 
control  he  went  on. 

When  Davis  secured  the  floor  some  hours  later, 
early  in  his  speech  he  said:  "I  did  not,  however," 
referring  to  some  phase  in  the  debate,  "  intend  to 
arraign  in  an  offensive  sense  the  consistency  of  my 


72  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

friend  from  Kentucky,  as  I  am  permitted  to  call 
him.  I  not  only  accepted  the  appellation  when  he 
applied  it  to  me,  I  accepted  it  gratefully  and  I  felt 
the  remarks  which  came  from  him  in  a  suppressed 
voice  more  deeply  than  I  can  express.  Between  us 
there  is  a  tie  of  old  memories,  an  association  running 
back  to  boyhood  days,  near  and  dear,  and  conse 
crated  so  that  death  alone  can  ever  sever  it.  It  is 
one  which  he  well  knows  and  I  can  never  forget." 

Critics!  condemners  of  Jefferson  Davis,  may  I 
ask  you  to  read  this  scene  over?  There  is  much,  you 
will  agree,  of  our  common  human  nature  in  it,  much 
that  moves  that  vibrating  chord  which  binds  us 
all,  which  tenderly  binds  you  to  me,  reader. 

There  was  another  event  that  summer  after 
Congress  adjourned,  which  we  think  throws  some 
light  on  the  kind  of  man  Davis  was,  and  which 
Carlisle  says  should  be  the  main  aim  and  endeavor 
of  a  biographer  to  discover.  It  was  this:  the  Whigs 
nominated  Taylor  and  the  Democrats  Lewis  Cass 

—  a  patriot  if  ever  there  was  one  and  a  warm  friend 
of  Davis  —  for  the  presidency.    He  was  now  con 
fronted  by  devotion  to  party  on  the  one  hand  and 
by  the  ties  that  bound  him  to  Taylor  on  the  other 

—  was   not   his   first   wife  Taylor's  daughter,  and 
had  he   not    shared  with  him  the  dangers  of  the 
battlefield,  dangers  that  develop  a  tie  that  may  grow 
old  but  never  breaks  —  ?  The  outcome  of  his  delib 
eration  was  to  remain  loyal  to  his  party's  nominee, 


HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY  73 

but  not  to  enter  the  campaign  in  his  behalf.  When, 
however,  zealous  Democrats  attacked  his  old  com 
manding  officer  he  came  out  boldly  in  his  defense, 
showing  that  strong  as  was  the  hold  of  party  on 
him  stronger  was  that  of  justice  and  friendship. 

And  now  a  word  as  to  how  he  passed  his  time 
when  not  in  the  Senate. 

Mrs.  Davis  in  her  Memoirs  says  that  he  came  home 
night  after  night  tired  out  and  then  from  dusk  devoted 
himself  to  a  late  hour,  and  often  to  nearly  daylight, 
getting  ready  for  the  next  day's  work;  that  his 
health,  never  robust  since  wounded  in  Mexico,  so 
interfered  with  social  duties  that  he  took  little  or  no 
part  in  the  gayeties  of  society,  although  from  time 
to  time  he  would  ask  his  very  intimate  political  and 
old  army  friends  to  dine  with  him.  In  my  youth  in 
the  field  I  met  old  officers  who  had  been  at  his  table, 
and,  although  they  were  fighting  against  him,  they 
spoke  of  his  graciousness,  natural  charm,  and  how 
his  face  would  light  up  radiantly  with  the  spirit  of 
comradeship. 

When  Congress  adjourned  Davis  went  home,  but 
not  to  quiet,  for  the  people  of  Mississippi  were  in  a 
political  ferment,  lining  up  for  the  election  in  Sep 
tember  of  delegates  to  a  convention  called  by  the 
Legislature  for  the  consideration  of  Federal  rela 
tions;  in  other  words,  to  approve  or  disapprove  of 
the  Clay  Compromise.  While  this  canvass  was 
going  on  the  regular  parties,  Whig  and  Democrat, 


74  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

nominated  candidates  for  Governor  to  be  elected  in 
November.  The  Whigs,  who  in  the  main  approved 
the  Compromise,  had  nominated  Foote;  and  the 
Democrats,  Quitman,  who  at  heart,  although  born 
in  the  North,  longed  to  break  with  it. 

Foote,  with  whom  Davis  had  had  a  serious  con 
troversy  in  the  Senate,  ending  with  a  mutual  antip 
athy  that  lasted  as  long  as  they  lived,  was  an  able 
man,  but  at  times  outrageous  in  his  language  in 
debate,  entered  upon  the  campaign  with  almost 
savage  delight.  From  county  seat  to  county  seat 
he  went  haranguing,  frequently  challenging  Davis  to 
meet  him,  and  excoriating  Quitman  unmercifully. 
The  election  of  delegates  in  favor  of  the  Compromise 
was  an  overwhelming  victory  for  him  and  the  Union 
party,  chiefly  Whigs.  Quitman,  whom  Foote  had 
literally  slashed  into  shreds,  withdrew  in  utter  dis 
gust  and  loathing  from  the  contest  for  governor; 
thereupon  the  Democrats  called  upon  Davis  to  lead 
then:  bewildered  party. 

At  that  time  he  was  confined  to  a  darkened  room, 
suffering  with  a  diseased  left  eye  that  ultimately 
lost  its  sight  entirely.  However,  he  yielded  to  the 
call,  resigned  his  Senatorship  and,  walking  back  and 
forth  in  his  dark  room,  dictated  his  stand  on  the 
issues,  declaring  that  he  had  never  advocated  the 
dissolution  of  the  Union,  that  the  time  for  secession 
had  not  come,  and,  if  ever,  then  only  as  a  last 
alternative,  and  as  soon  as  he  was  able,  set  out  to 


HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY  75 

make  the  best  canvass  he  could  in  the  few  weeks 
that  remained. 

The  election  went  against  him,  but  he  reduced 
the  majority  of  more  than  seven  thousand  that  had 
been  cast  at  the  delegate  election,  to  less  than  a 
thousand.  That  this  defeat  was  a  sore  disappoint 
ment  we  have  no  doubt;  not  only  had  he  sacrificed  a 
position  of  honor  that  he  had  craved  and  enjoyed, 
but  had  been  defeated  by  a  man  he  despised.  His 
resignation  of  the  Senatorship  to  go  into  this  cam 
paign  had  ill-starred  issue  in  this,  that,  it  identi 
fied  him  thenceforth  with  the  Southern  radicals  with 
whom  he  was  not  in  full  sympathy,  and  who  were 
for  dissolving  the  Union  at  once,  he  only  as  a  last 
alternative. 

This  step  indicates  his  sense  of  political  obligation 
to  the  party  that  had  bestowed  its  honors  upon 
him,  a  delicate  fastidiousness  of  the  proprieties  of 
official  life,  and  a  keen  oversensitiveness  as  to  what 
touched  his  motives  and  policies,  a  trait  in  his 
character  that  is  never  found  in  dictators.  From  a 
worldly  point  of  view,  the  Confederacy  might  have 
gained  here  and  there  an  advantage  had  he  been 
less  sensitive,  shrewder  and  more  compliant;  but, 
while  nature  in  gathering  his  clay  had  been  bountiful 
in  her  gifts  to  address  the  mind  and  put  the  torch 
to  enthusiasm,  she  forgot  —  or  disdained  —  to  give 
him  a  faculty  to  deceive,  to  purr  to  the  vanity  of 
the  mighty,  or  to  greet  with  a  factitious  smile  and 


76  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

familiarity  the  always  ambitious  and  oftentimes 
vulgar  politicians  that  pack  the  ranks  of  mediocrity. 
In  this  connection  as  illustrative  of  the  kind  of  man 
he  was,  on  one  occasion  in  the  Senate,  he  said:  "I 
wish  now  merely  to  add  that  what  my  heart  tells 
me  is  right,  no  casuistry  can  prevail  upon  me  not  to 
do,  or  to  do  that  which  I  believe  to  be  wrong." 

We  have  wondered,  more  than  once,  what  the 
fate  of  the  Confederacy  would  have  been  had  it  had 
a  leader  of  a  different  type.  Would  it  have  suc 
ceeded?  we  hear  some  one  ask.  0,  no!  Entangled 
in  slavery's  inextricable  net,  it  was  doomed  to 
defeat  sooner  or  later  let  its  leader  have  been  the 
shrewdest  of  mortals.  In  view  of  its  heroic  life, 
although  ill-starred,  it  was  better,  it  was  far  better, 
we  think,  to  have  had  a  leader  such  as  he  was,  a 
man  with  high  standards  of  public  and  private  life, 
a  stainless  character,  a  tongue  gifted  with  eloquence 
and  a  heart  of  indomitable  courage.  Every  nation 
at  some  period  in  its  life  furnishes  material  for 
drama  and  I  am  glad  that  in  the  life  of  the  Con 
federacy  there  is  so  much  of  a  high,  inspiring  character. 

After  the  election  he  betook  himself  to  the  reju 
venescence  of  his  plantation  which,  due  to  his  long 
absence  and  the  death  of  the  faithful  James  Pem- 
berton,  had  become  unfruitful  and  begun  to  wear 
the  forlorn  look  of  neglect.  By  his  ever  contagious 
spirit  he  quickly  inspired  new  zeal  in  the  gangs 
picking  cotton  and  harvesting  the  crops,  for  it  was 


HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY  77 

autumn  and  they  were  ripe;  and  when  not  in  the 
fields  with  the  hands,  devoted  himself  to  the  grounds 
about  the  house,  for  they,  among  all  the  accessories 
of  an  estate  as  we  well  know,  are  the  first  to  show 
the  decline  of  prosperity. 

His  wife  says  they  worked  together  looking  after 
ornamental  blooming  shrubs,  cultivating  roses  in 
the  garden,  of  which  he  was  very  proud,  and  one 
day  they  planted  a  little  live  oak  that  thrived  so 
well  that  when  she  wrote  her  book  it  spread  a 
shade  of  over  ninety  feet.  So  passed  those  autumn 
days,  the  buoyant  magnolia  glorying  in  her  bursting 
carmine  seeds,  the  clustered  purple  asters  and  golden- 
rod  in  bloom,  and  the  primeval  woods  basking  in 
the  dreamy  Indian  summer  silence,  days  that  in 
the  eyes  of  the  gray-haired  wife,  after  the  storm 
and  wreck  were  over,  lay  like  a  lost  Eden  in  the 
dreary  past. 

Meanwhile  Davis'  friend,  Franklin  Pierce  of  New 
Hampshire,  had  been  elected  President  and  one  day 
there  came  a  letter  from  him  asking  Davis  to  a  place 
in  his  Cabinet.  Mrs.  Davis,  dreading  a  change, 
entreated  him  not  to  accept,  and  he  declined  the 
honor.  Pierce,  sorely  disappointed,  for  Davis  had 
had  a  warm  place  in  his  heart  for  many  a  day, 
hoped  he  would  at  least  come  on  to  his  inauguration. 
Davis,  yielding  as  throughout  his  life  to  the  pleas 
of  lifelong  friendships,  went  to  Washington;  Pierce 
renewed  his  request,  backed  earnestly  by  leaders  of 


78  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

the  party,  a  call  that  always  had  something  of  the 
stir  and  rallying  appeal  of  a  bugle  on  a  battlefield 
for  him,  for  he  was  a  strong  party  man,  and  Davis 
accepted  the  position  of  Secretary  of  War. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

OF  all  the  politically  lordly  places  in  the  Cabinet 
not  one  could  have  had  for  Davis  the  same  inherent 
distinction  or  duties  so  agreeable  as  that  of  the 
Secretary  of  War.  It  gave  him  not  only  the  oppor 
tunity  to  render  valuable  services  in  behalf  of  the 
Nation's  defence  but  also  to  enhance  the  welfare 
and  efficiency  of  his  boyhood's  profession,  the  Army 
he  loved. 

With  his  natural  diligence  and  enthusiasm  he 
threw  himself  into  the  performance  of  his  duties. 
He  urged  and  succeeded  in  increasing  the  Army's 
numbers  and  its  pay;  he  replaced  the  old  smooth 
bore  muskets  by  the  best  modern  rifles;  caused  the 
revision  of  the  tactics  and  Army  regulations;  strength 
ened  the  seacoast  defences  and  gave  to  Rodman, 
the  father  of  all  modern  high-power  cannon,  every 
help  and  encouragement  while  carrying  on  his  still 
fruit-bearing  experiments.  It  was  my  fortune  to 
serve  with  this  truly  distinguished  officer  during 
and  after  the  war,  and  he  never  failed  to  speak  of 
Davis'  wide  knowledge  of  every  science,  his  readi 
ness  to  listen,  his  uniform  courtesy  and  charm  of 
manner;  and,  while  his  office  room  in  the  War 
Department  had  an  unmistakable  atmosphere  of 

79 


80  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

dignity,  yet  there  was  none  of  the  usual  chill  and 
meticulous  fussiness  that  pervade  so  many  of  our 
self-conscious  military  headquarters. 

Davis  ordered  surveys  for  transcontinental  roads 
to  facilitate  the  assemblage  of  troops  on  the  Pacific 
coast,  recommended  the  establishment  of  post 
schools,  sent  a  commission  to  report  on  the  conduct 
of  the  Crimean  War  and  gave  especial  attention 
not  only  to  the  betterment  of  officers'  quarters  at 
West  Point  where  Lee  was  superintendent,  but  also 
and  above  all  established  at  the  Academy  a  depart 
ment  of  ethics  with  a  view  to  extending  and  elevating 
the  merely  professional  education  into  fields  of 
philosophy,  history  and  literature,  thus  giving  an 
officer  those  intellectual  acquirements  befitting  his 
position  as  a  representative  of  his  country.  He 
tells  us  that  he  was  led  to  this  addition  to  the  course 
of  study  by  deficiencies  he  had  felt  in  his  associa 
tion  with  men  of  wider  university  education.  It  was 
during  his  administration  that  Weir  painted  the 
picture  over  the  chancel  in  the  old  chapel.  On  the 
left  of  the  legend,  "  Righteousness  exalteth  a  nation 
but  Sin  is  a  reproach  to  any  people,"  stands  a 
thoughtful  Roman  soldier,  his  hand  resting  on  a 
stand  of  lictors,  and  on  the  right  of  the  legend  the 
figure  of  Peace  with  her  heaven-lit  face  uplifted  and 
in  her  hand  an  olive  branch.  In  that  picture  is  the 
sublimation  of  the  ideals  of  the  hero  and  noble 
warrior,  the  embodiment  of  the  spirit  of  old  West 


HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY  81 

Point  worshipping  with  the  Cadets.  A  copy  should 
occupy  a  like  place  over  the  chancel  in  the  new 
chapel. 

No  graduate,  we  are  fain  to  believe,  ever  held  his 
Alma  Mater  in  deeper  love  than  Jefferson  Davis, 
whose  weaned  mind,  when  he  lay  on  his  last  sick  bed 
and  death  very  near,  winged  its  way  back  to  her,  and 
he  said  to  his  wife,  to  whom  he  was  dictating  his 
autobiography:  "I  have  not  told  what  I  wish  to 
say  of  my  classmates  Sidney  Johnston  and  Polk 
[the  venerable  bishop  killed  on  Lone  Mountain]; 
I  have  much  more  to  say  about  them.  I  shall  tell 
a  great  deal  of  West  Point,  and  I  seem  to  remember 
more  every  day."  Sweet,  like  inflowing  brooks  from 
meadows  green,  are  old  memories,  but  let  us  return  to 
the  narrative's  main  channel. 

It  had  been  customary  in  those  days  of  political 
spoils,  upon  a  change  of  administration,  to  make 
removals  of  clerkships  to  satisfy  party  workers. 
Now  it  so  happened  that  the  Chief  Clerk  of  the 
War  Department  who,  by  long  experience,  had 
peculiar  qualifications,  had  been  removed  by  Davis' 
predecessor,  and  although  known  to  Davis  officially 
only,  he  replaced  him  in  his  old  position.  Again, 
and  illustrative  of  his  ideas  as  to  civil  service,  the 
Quartermaster-General  needing  a  clerk  sent  him  a 
list  arranged  according  to  his  judgment  as  to  merit; 
Davis  gave  the  appointment  to  No.  1;  within  a  few 
days  a  delegation  of  Democratic  Congressmen  called 


82  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

on  him  and  wanted  to  know  whether  it  was  true 
that  he  had  appointed  a  Whig  to  a  position  in  the 
War  Department.  He  replied,  "Certainly  not." 
Whereupon,  pleased  at  the  brightening  prospect, 
the  delegation  observed  that  they  thought  he  had 
not  been  aware  of  it  and  proceeded  to  inform  him 
that  the  clerk  he  had  appointed  was  a  Whig,  etc. 

Davis  listened  to  them  patiently,  and  when  they 
were  through  told  them  in  his  usual  respectful 
tones  and  manner  that  they  had  been  misinformed, 
that  he  had  appointed  not  a  Whig  but  a  clerk,  No.  1 
on  a  merit  list  that  had  been  submitted  by  the 
head  of  the  bureau;  and,  moreover,  that  while  he 
was  in  office,  merit  and  not  politics  would  be  his 
rule  in  all  such  cases. 

Of  course  this  was  not  satisfactory  to  the  Con 
gressmen,  but  all  high-minded  men  of  today  will 
agree  that  it  was  creditable  to  Davis.  Here  is  what 
Carl  Schurz  in  his  Reminiscences  has  to  say  about 
him: 

"The  first  call  I  made  was  at  the  War  Department, 
to  present  my  letter  of  introduction  to  the  Secretary, 
Mr.  Jefferson  Davis.  Being  respectful,  even  rever 
ential,  by  natural  disposition,  I  had  in  my  imagina 
tion  formed  a  high  idea  of  what  a  grand  personage 
the  War  Minister  of  this  great  Republic  must  be. 
I  was  not  disappointed.  He  received  me  graciously. 
His  slender,  tall,  and  erect  figure,  his  spare  face, 
keen  eyes,  and  fine  forehead,  not  broad,  but  high 


HIS  LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  83 

and  well  shaped,  presented  the  well-known  strong 
American  type.  There  was  in  his  bearing  a  dignity 
which  seemed  entirely  natural  and  unaffected  - 
that  kind  of  dignity  which  does  not  invite  familiar 
approach,  but  will  not  render  one  uneasy  by  lofty 
assumption.  His  courtesy  was  without  any  con 
descending  air.  Our  conversation  confined  itself  to 
the  conventional  commonplace.  A  timid  attempt  on 
my  part  to  elicit  from  him  an  opinion  on  the  phase 
of  the  slavery  question  brought  about  by  the  intro 
duction  of  the  Nebraska  Bill  did  not  meet  with 
the  desired  response.  He  simply  hoped  that  every 
thing  would  turn  out  for  the  best.  Then  he  deftly 
resumed  his  polite  inquiries  about  my  experiences 
in  America  and  my  plans  for  the  future,  and  expressed 
his  good  wishes.  His  conversation  ran  in  easy,  and, 
so  far  as  I  could  judge,  well-chosen  and  sometimes 
even  elegant  phrase,  and  the  timbre  of  his  voice 
had  something  peculiarly  agreeable.  A  few  years 
later  I  heard  him  deliver  a  speech  in  the  Senate, 
and  again  I  was  struck  by  the  dignity  of  his  bearing, 
the  grace  of  his  diction,  and  the  rare  charm  of  his 
voice  —  things  which  greatly  distinguished  him 
from  many  of  his  colleagues." 

In  contrast  to  this  vivid  sketch  of  the  outer  man, 
let  me  give  one  or  two  incidents  while  Secretary  of 
War  that  reveal  the  inner  man. 

One  morning  as  he  was  about  to  sit  down  to 
breakfast,  the  doorbell  rang  and  a  young,  careworn 


84  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

mother  was  ushered  in  with  a  crying  baby  and  a 
yelling  boy,  his  hand  clutched  in  hers.  She  was  the 
wife  of  a  private  soldier  and  had  come  to  appeal  in 
his  behalf  from  a  court-martial  sentence.  Davis 
heard  her  story,  had  her  accompany  him  to  the 
breakfast  room,  placed  a  chair  for  her  at  the  table 
and  then  led  the  boy  to  Mrs.  Davis,  saying:  "My 
little  man,  here  is  a  lady  who  comforts  crying  boys." 

Breakfast  over  he  went  with  the  woman  to  the 
President  and  on  her  return  sent  a  note  to  Mrs. 
Davis  asking  her  to  provide  an  early  dinner,  to 
give  a  dollar  to  each  of  the  children,  and  the  butler 
to  take  them  to  the  train  and  buy  them  tickets 
home.  Light  must  have  been  that  poor  woman's 
heart  as  she  put  her  children  in  their  beds  that  night, 
and  so  long  as  she  lived  deep  and  abiding,  we  are 
sure,  was  her  gratitude. 

Again,  there  was  a  professional  beggar,  an  old, 
disfigured  woman  who  daily  —  winter  and  summer 
-  would  sit  knitting  stockings  before  the  door  of 
the  War  Department.  Every  day  Davis  would  send 
the  office  messenger  with  a  small  sum  of  money  to 
the  old  creature,  and  insisted  that  Mrs.  Davis 
should  provide  her  with  a  cushion.  And  by  the 
way,  the  messenger  (Patrick  Jordan  was  his  name), 
just  before  he  died  long  after  the  war  was  over, 
asked  his  wife  to  return  a  gold  pencil  that  Davis 
had  given  him.  Mrs.  Davis  says  in  her  Memoirs 
that  her  husband's  eyes  were  misty  as  he  read 


HIS   LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  85 

Patrick's  widow's  note  accompanying  the  memento. 

Here  is  another  incident  we  think  worth  recording: 
Lieut.  Robert  Ransom,  later  General  Ransom  of 
the  Confederate  Army,  came  to  Washington  for  his 
wedding  to  an  intimate  acquaintance  of  the  Davises, 
who  a  few  days  after  his  arrival  gave  a  reception. 
When  Ransom  presented  himself  Davis  remarked: 
"  Young  gentleman,  I  expected  to  have  seen  you 
before."  Ransom  turned  to  Mrs.  Davis  and  said: 
"Madam,  do  you  think  that  even  the  Secretary  of 
War  has  a  right  to  more  than  one  visit  from  a  fellow 
on  leave  of  absence,  who  is  here  to  marry  his  sweet 
heart  day  after  tomorrow,  when  she  and  I  hope  to 
see  you  and  receive  your  congratulations?"  Davis 
instantly  replied,  "Go  to  your  sweetheart  and  tell 
her,  with  my  love,  I  am  her  friend  and  shall  be  to 
her  husband  if  he  be  worthy  of  so  noble  a  woman." 

Pierce's  administration  ended  on  the  fourth  of 
March,  1857,  and  at  nine  o'clock  that  day,  Davis 
went  to  the  White  House  and  handed  in  his  resigna 
tion  as  Secretary  of  War,  having  been  reflected 
Senator  by  his  home  State  to  the  new  Congress 
that  was  to  meet  at  noon.  On  rising  to  bid  farewell 
after  a  long  interview,  Pierce  grasped  his  hand, 
saying:  "I  can  scarcely  bear  the  parting  from  you 
who  have  been  strength  and  solace  to  me  for  four 
anxious  years  and  never  failed  me." 


CHAPTER  IX 

UPON  reentrance  into  Congress  Davis  rose  at 
once  to  a  figure  of  marked  national  political  promi 
nence,  for  the  Administration  he  had  just  left,  and 
of  which  he  was  credited  as  the  master  mind,  had 
approved  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill,  a  bill  that,  by 
its  virtual  repeal  of  the  venerable  Missouri  Com 
promise,  threw  the  Abolition  Party  into  a  convulsive 
frenzy,  its  leaders  shouting  from  platform,  press 
and  pulpit  that  it  meant  a  wicked,  premeditated 
extension  of  slavery's  curse,  not  only  over  territories 
dedicated  to  freedom,  but  all  over  the  wide  land, 
and  with  frowning  brows  and  savage  eyes  singled 
out  Davis  as  the  evil  genius  of  the  Satanic  measure; 
whereas,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  he  had  had  nothing 
whatsoever  to  do  with  its  conception.  It  was  the 
child  of  Douglas,  begotten  by  his  eager  ambition 
for  party  leadership  and  then  the  presidency. 

In  magnitude  of  historic  consequences  that  bill  is 
without  an  equal  in  all  passing  Congress  up  to  that 
time,  or  perhaps  to  this.  Like  a  bombshell  it  startled 
the  thousands  upon  thousands  in  the  North  who 
were  reading  with  swimming  eyes  the  fate  of  Uncle 
Tom  in  that  epoch-making  fiction  "  Uncle  Tom's 
Cabin,"  and  rallied  every  hitherto  latent  opponent 


HIS   LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  87 

of  slavery  to  the  active  support  of  the  new-born 
Republican  Party,  which,  under  the  mighty  impulse 
of  fervent  recruits,  marched,  so  to  speak,  with  flying 
banners  to  the  boundaries  of  the  territories,  south 
as  well  as  north  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  line, 
and  proclaimed  that  slavery  should  not  advance 
another  step.  That  position  it  never  abandoned, 
and  the  world  has  said  it  was  right  and  wound  its 
chaplets  on  the  brows  of  its  leaders. 

But  what  did  it  mean  to  the  South?  This,  and 
this  only:  that  notwithstanding  their  forefathers 
had  marched  to  Cambridge  to  save  Boston  after 
Lexington  —  and  by  the  way,  this  book  is  written 
within  a  look  and  a  throw  of  the  Old  Elm  where 
Washington  took  command,  —  had  yielded  to  New 
England  desire  to  extend  the  time  for  stopping  the 
slave  trade  when  framing  the  Constitution;  had 
paid  their  full  share  of  the  burden  imposed  by  the 
operations  of  the  tariff  to  protect  the  products  of 
Northern  factories  from  foreign  competition;  had 
done  their  full  part  in  the  War  of  1812  on  land  and  sea; 
indeed,  had  practically  alone  defeated  the  British 
veterans  at  New  Orleans  and  borne  the  brunt  of  the 
Mexican  War;  yet,  and  nevertheless,  not  one  of 
them  all  should  take  his  property  in  slaves  with  him 
into  an  adjacent  territory  to  establish  a  new  home; 
not  one  be  allowed  to  take  with  him  the  old  mammy 
who  had  rocked  him  in  the  cradle,  or  the  old  " uncle" 
who  had  carried  him  on  his  shoulder  in  childhood, 


88  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

and  shown  him  how  to  make  and  set  his  traps  for 
rabbits,  partridges  and  wild  pigeons;  not  one  should 
go  with  him  to  his  new  home.  What  would  domestic 
life  be  to  him  and  his  family  without  them? 

Again,  and  surely,  was  not  his  property  in  slaves 
recognized  in  the  Constitution,  and  on  the  same 
legal  footing  as  the  horses  and  oxen  of  the  Northern 
man  when  he  came  to  the  territorial  line  to  start  his 
new  home,  unless  we  say  that  its  terms  had  lost 
their  force  and  meaning?  And  lo,  too,  the  significance 
of  this  decree!  Would  not  submission  to  it  be  equiv 
alent  to  a  passive  acknowledgment  that  henceforth 
he  was  not  the  equal  of  his  fellow  citizen  in  the 
enjoyment  of  express  Constitutional  rights?  But, 
and  above  all,  how  long  would  it  be,  if  his  claim  be 
denied  to  go  into  the  adjacent  territory  with  his 
property  in  slaves,  before  his  right  to  hold  them 
anywhere  would  be  denied? 

Is  there  a  Northern  man  of  self-respect  today  who, 
had  he  been  in  the  slaveholder's  shoes,  would  not 
have  resented,  as  the  Southern  man  resented,  the 
threatened  humiliation  in  the  eyes  of  the  world? 
Would  he  not  have  said  as  a  man  of  courage,  such 
as  I  know  my  fellow  Northern  men  to  be,  "If  you 
push  to  extremes  this  crusade  against  slavery, 
bound  up  as  it  is  with  our  domestic  and  economic 
life,  we  shall  have  to  take  a  stand,  come  weal,  come 
woe!" 

Now  that  was  Davis'  position,  as  well  as  that  of 


HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY  89 

thousands  of  Union-loving  slaveholders,  in  reference 
to  the  aforementioned  contingency.  That  over 
that  contingency  hung  a  black  cloud,  carrying  battle 
fields  strewn  with  dead  bodies,  some  in  blue  and 
some  in  gray,  cannot  be  gainsaid,  for  it  has  its  living 
witnesses  in  the  national  cemeteries  and  soldiers' 
monuments,  Union  and  Confederate,  and  its  history 
in  over  fifty  bulky  volumes  of  war  records  bound  in 
black. 

But  we  are  not  writing  history,  that  is  a  rapid, 
impersonal  chronicle  of  events;  we  are  writing,  or 
at  least  trying  to  write,  a  biography  which  is,  if 
well  done,  the  complete  unfolding  of  what  is  called 
the  inner  life  of  a  man;  for  without  a  clear  insight 
into  that  inner  life  the  writer  may  be  in  a  Pilate's 
court  and  pleading  for  the  release  of  a  Barabbas. 

With  this  biographic  aim  in  view  then,  we  have 
touched  upon  one  of  the  tributaries  of  the  main 
stream  of  political  events  that  had  carried  Davis 
into  his  position,  the  denial  of  what  he  and  his 
fellow  Southerners  believed  to  be  natural  and  in 
law  fundamental  Constitutional  rights;  let  us  go 
now  to  the  source  of  another  tributary  of  that  main 
stream,  the  States  Rights  Party,  with  which  at  that 
time  he  was  more  or  less  identified. 

As  early  as  1834  John  Quincy  Adams,  in  his  diary 
of  August  29,  gives  the  substance  of  an  interview  in 
Washington  which  the  editor  of  the  Charleston 
Courier  had  sought  with  him.  In  the  course  of  their 


90  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

talk  the  editor  alluded  to  the  apprehension,  always 
prevailing  in  the  South,  that  the  Northern  people 
"had  a  perpetual  propensity  to  promote  the  abolition 
of  slavery. " 

"That  ghost/ '  says  Adams,  when  with  pen  in 
hand  he  bent  over  his  diary,  "I  believe  will  haunt 
them  till  they  bring  it  up  in  reality.  I  said  I  had  no 
longer  the  confidence  in  the  duration  of  the  Union 
that  I  once  had,  but  did  not  say  why,"  and  with 
this  cryptic  remark  closed  the  record  of  the  day. 

That  haunting  ghost  was  never  laid;  night  after 
night  thenceforth  it  rapped  on  the  door  till  it  devel 
oped  a  permanently  morbid  state  of  mind  relative 
to  the  abolition  movement  against  slavery.  Under 
its  influence  Southern  radicals,  after  Clay's  Com 
promise  of  1850,  following  the  example  of  Northern 
radicals,  each  faction  steeped  with  long-harbored 
hate  and  scorn  for  the  other,  revived  the  doctrine 
of  States  Rights  which  Northern  radicals  had  made 
use  of  in  the  Hartford  Convention  of  1814  threaten 
ing  withdrawal  from  the  Union.  Through  the 
increasing  ill-feeling  due  to  the  discussion  of  slavery 
and  its  contagious  infection,  the  States  Rights  Party 
grew  in  numbers  and  in  the  end  played  the  part  in 
the  South  which  the  Abolitionists  played  in  the 
North;  both  in  their  turn  becoming  the  paramount 
force  in  determining  the  ultimate  spirit  of  their 
respective  sections. 

At    the    time    we    are    dealing    with  —  Davis ' 


HIS   LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  91 

reentrance  into  Congress  —  the  Democratic  Party 
in  the  South  was  drifting  toward  the  perilous  beach 
of  secession,  and  he  with  it,  a  believer  as  he  was 
from  his  youth  up  in  the  sovereignty  of  the  States 
and  their  justification,  under  certain  conditions  of 
humiliation  breeding  insurrection  to  reassert  that 
sovereignty.  So  then,  on  one  of  those  preordained 
tides  in  the  life  of  nations,  Jefferson  Davis  drifted 
with  the  South,  just  as  Abraham  Lincoln  drifted 
with  the  North,  for  when  he  was  in  Congress,  1847, 
and  sixteen  or  seventeen  years  after  that  reputed 
remark  of  his  upon  witnessing  a  slave  auction  in 
New  Orleans,  which  more  than  one  of  his  biogra 
phers  have  dwelt  upon  with  satisfaction,  "By  God, 
boys,  let's  get  away  from  this.  If  ever  I  get  a  chance 
to  hit  that  thing  (meaning  slavery)  I'll  hit  it  hard," 
he  offered  a  bill  whose  fifth  section  was  in  these 
words : 

"That  the  municipal  authorities  of  Washington 
and  Georgetown,  within  their  respective  jurisdic- 
tional  limits,  are  hereby  empowered  and  required  to 
provide  active  and  efficient  means  to  arrest  and 
deliver  up  to  their  owners  all  fugitive  slaves  escaping 
into  said  district."  Washington  at  that  very  time 
had  a  public  slave-auction  room,  with  its  weekly 
heart-breaking  spectacles.  When  Lincoln  offered 
that  bill  so  in  contrast  with  the  well-known  work  of 
art  in  which  he  is  depicted  breaking  the  chains  of  a 
slave,  the  life  of  the  Union  was  threatened,  he  was 


92  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

willing  to  return  the  fugitives  to  their  owners  for 
the  Union's  sake,  to  which  he  was  tied  as  Davis  and 
thousands  of  fellow  Southerners  were  tied,  by  a 
reverential  memory  of  the  days  when  their  forefathers 
made  such  a  heavy  sacrifice  to  found  it;  but  on  the 
current  of  events  he  drifted,  drifted  from  that  slave- 
capturing  bill  to  the  Emancipation  Proclamation  at 
last,  and  then  to  fame  immortal.  The  incident 
only  proves  that  he  was  human  and  not  "that 
faultless  monster  whom  the  world  ne'er  saw."  In 
the  glaring  light  of  circumstances  like  these,  so 
inconsistent  with  subsequent  events  illumined  for 
all  time,  whose  voice  shall  we  listen  to  in  judging 
the  careers  of  the  personages  of  those  days?  To  me 
the  sweetest,  and  we  think  in  the  long  run  the  wisest, 
is  that  of  charity. 


CHAPTER  X 

SOME  time  in  the  early  winter  of  1858,  Davis  fell 
seriously  ill  with  laryngitis,  not  only  losing  his  speech 
so  that  he  had  to  make  known  his  wants  in  writing, 
but  also  his  left  eye,  that  had  never  fully  recovered 
its  strength  from  a  previous  attack,  became  so 
inflamed,  swollen  and  at  last  totally  blind  that  he 
could  not  endure  any  light  whatsoever  in  the  room. 
His  affliction  was  long,  painful  and  debilitating,  yet 
not  without  some  compensation,  for  as  in  the  wake 
of  devastating  forest  fires  the  willow-herb  appears 
and  blooms,  so  sympathies  and  delicate  attentions 
from  old  friends  decked  the  track  of  his  sickness; 
and  no  one  was  more  devoted  and  spontaneously 
kindly  than  Seward,  his  great  political  antagonist, 
who  almost  daily  would  go  and  sit  by  his  bedside, 
telling  him  what  was  going  on  in  the  Senate. 

On  one  of  these  Good  Samaritan  visits  the  haunt 
ing  slavery  question  came  drifting  along  on  the 
current  of  their  gossipy,  informal  talk.  Mrs.  Davis 
asked  the  visitor  in  view  of  his  seeing  slavery  as  it 
actually  was  while  an  instructor  at  an  academy  in 
Georgia,  how  he  could  make  such  piteous  appeals 
for  the  negro  and  believe  all  he  said  in  the  debates. 
"I  do  not,"  he  answered  good-naturedly,  "but  these 

93 


94  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

appeals,  as  you  call  them,  are  potent  to  affect  the 
rank  and  file  of  the  North. "  Davis,  surprised  by 
Seward's  remark,  asked  with  gravity,  "But,  Mr. 
Seward,  do  you  never  speak  from  conviction  alone?" 

" Never!"  he  responded  emphatically;  whereupon 
Davis  raised  his  blindfolded  head  and  whispered, 
"As  God  is  my  judge,  I  never  spoke  from  any  other 
motive."  Seward  put  his  arm  about  him  and  gently 
laid  him  down,  saying,  "I  know  you  do  not.  I  am 
always  sure  of  it." 

This  happening  is  full  of  light;  favorable  indeed 
for  Davis,  and  most  illuminating  as  to  the  character 
of  Seward,  whose  whole  subsequent  career  shows 
that  he  had  uttered  an  absolute  truth. 

On  its  face,  however,  that  was  the  speech  of  a 
charlatan;  but  he  was  not  a  charlatan,  he  was  a 
gifted,  long-foreseeing,  practical  statesman,  whose 
life's  aim  was  to  enhance  the  welfare  and  the  glory 
of  the  country  he  adored.  For  this  end  he  was  ready 
to  make  factitious  appeals  when  dealing  with  the 
incubus  of  slavery,  ready  to  use  duplicity  with  the 
Commissioners  of  the  South  as  to  the  evacuation  of 
Fort  Sumter,  to  bid  defiance  to  Great  Britain  and 
France  over  the  recognition  of  the  Confederacy  in 
the  darkest  hours,  and  at  last,  and  notwithstanding 
his  attempted  assassination  by  a  Southern  sympa 
thizer,  to  plead  in  behalf  of  the  defeated,  forlorn 
and  helpless  South  against  the  vindictive  revenge 
of  the  radicals  of  his  own  party.  Truly,  truly,  like 


HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY  95 

a  great  scarred  battleship  that  had  sent  her  boats 
to  a  sinking  enemy,  he  came  into  port  grandly. 
Moreover  there  was  a  grain  of  poetry  in  his  nature, 
for  it  was  he  who  suggested  to  Lincoln  that  beautiful 
and  touching  paragraph,  ending  so  well  his  first 
inaugural  and  gleaming  its  entrance  into  the  company 
of  great  State  papers. 

Davis  had  another  friend,  the  famous  Gen.  Edwin 
V.  Sumner,  who  in  the  war  commanded  the  Second 
Corps  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  and  whom  the 
fields  of  Virginia  and  Maryland  remember  right 
well,  who  during  Davis'  illness  used  to  visit  him  in 
the  darkened  room  and  talk  with  him  by  the  hour 
over  bygone  days,  engagements  with  the  Indians, 
frontier  experiences,  and  all  that  army  gossip  that 
has  wiled  away  so  many  an  hour  for  the  soldier  in 
peace  and  war. 

But  the  most  interesting  thing  was  this:  Sumner 
had  come  on  to  Washington  seeking  satisfaction  for 
a  discourtesy  and  affront  from  Colonel  Harney, 
and  had  sent  him  a  challenge  through  his  friend 
Colonel  Hardie.  When  Davis  heard  the  story  he 
whispered  to  Sumner,  "You  do  not  want  to  fight, 
of  course,  but  have  the  matter  explained  and  the 
wrong  acknowledged." 

"Well,  I  do  not  know  about  that,"  responded  the 
old  warrior,  "I  rather  think  I  prefer  fighting,"  but 
his  and  Harney's  seconds  smoothed  out  the  trouble 
and  laid  away  the  pistols.  Let  the  war  rage  as  it 


96  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

might,  defeat  come  with  calumny  and  imprisonment, 
yet  the  ties  that  bound  Davis  to  the  old  soldier 
who  sat  by  his  bedside  and  officers  who  fought 
against  him  never  broke  and  were  still  green  when 
death  overtook  him. 

The  last  of  June,  when  able  to  travel,  Davis,  with 
his  family  of  little  children,  took  a  steamer  at 
Baltimore,  sailed  down  the  Chesapeake  and  around 
Fort  Monroe,  where  a  few  years  later  he  languished 
so  long,  and  thence  out  to  sea  for  Portland,  Maine, 
-  drawn  thither  by  the  cool,  refreshing  breezes 
that  come  in  off  the  sea  and  play  among  the  beau 
tiful,  wooded  islands  of  Casco  Bay  —  and  to  be 
once  more  with  a  West  Point  friend  who  was  spend 
ing  the  summer  there,  Dallas  Bache,  then  at  the 
head  of  the  Coast  Survey,  and  who  had  the  grati 
tude  of  every  ship's  captain  of  that  day  for  the 
lighthouses  he  had  built  and  the  harbors  he  had 
charted. 

Davis  met  many  well-bred  and  well-known  people, 
and  made  many,  many  friends  that  summer;  when  it 
was  over  he  started  in  October  for  home,  but  the 
day  he  reached  Boston  one  of  the  children  was 
stricken  with  membranous  croup  and  came  near 
dying. 

Much  to  the  comfort  of  Davis  and  his  wife,  Mrs. 
Harrison  Gray  Otis,  whose  fame,  like  venerable  lilac, 
still  blooms  in  the  antique  garden  of  Boston's  aris 
tocracy,  went  to  their  hotel,  (the  Tremont  House, 


HIS   LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  97 

overlooking  the  Granary  Burial  Ground,  the  grave 
of  Sam  Adams  beneath  its  windows),   and  did  a 
nurse's   part   all   the   night   long,    a   kindness   the 
Davises  never  forgot,  and  a  perfect  example  of  the 
many  charming  surprises  in  the  Puritan  character. 
During  the  child's  convalescence  Davis,  at  the 
request  of  a  committee  of  leading  Democrats  headed 
by  Caleb  Gushing,  his  fellow  member  in  Pierce's 
Cabinet,  made  an  address  in  Faneuil  Hall.  The  main 
body,  the  galleries,  and  the  aisles  of  that  famous 
hall  were  packed.   Davis  was  at  his  best,  he  felt  the 
spirit  and  heard  the  voice  that  abides  there,  and  a 
better,  a  fairer,  a  more  thoughtful  or  earnest  speech 
he  never  made.  He  discussed  the  issues  then  engag 
ing  the  aroused  attention  of  the  country,  abandoned 
no  ground  he  had  ever  taken  as  to  the  Constitutional 
rights  of  the  South,  used  no  epithets  or  disrespectful 
language  against  the  Abolitionists,  notwithstanding 
their  almost  personal  enmity  since  the  Pierce  admin 
istration,  and  closed  with  a  glowing,  solemn  appeal 
that  the  old  ties  which  had  bound  the  colonies  in 
their  days  of  trial  be  not  broken.   And  now,  as  from 
time  to  time  while  writing  this  book,  I  pass  the  grave 
of  Sam  Adams  and  his  fellow-revolutionary  patriots 
in  the  Granary  Burial  Ground  on  which  the  windows 
of   the  Tremont   House   then  looked   down,   it  is 
never  without  a  feeling  that  the  memories  they 
evoked  swept  as  with  a  spectral  hand  the  chords  of 
his  love  for  the  Union  as  he  spoke  in  Faneuil  Hall. 


98  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

He  was  the  last  great  slaveholder  that  ever  stood 
on  that  historic  platform  and  talked  out  of  his 
heart  to  the  people  of  Boston;  I  am  fain  to  believe 
he  left  on  his  audience  an  impression  that  was 
favorable;  in  bearing  and  language  he  had  shown  he 
was  a  gentleman,  one,  moreover,  who  had  stood  the 
gentleman's  final  test  —  the  dangers  of  a  battle 
field;  and  we  are  inclined  to  think,  too,  that  as  they 
listened  to  his  engaging,  cultivated  voice  filled  with 
strength,  respect  and  candor,  he  seemed  to  them  a 
worthy  representative  of  the  Southern  men  who  had 
stood  by  their  gallant  forefathers  —  the  Adamses, 
Sam  and  John,  Knox,  Hancock,  Greene  and  Lincoln. 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE  next  three  years,  1858  to  1861,  of  Davis' 
life  and  that  of  his  fellow-countrymen,  South  and 
North,  were  momentous  for  him  and  them,  and  we 
are  convinced  that  no  one  can  read  the  newspapers, 
the  diaries,  or  the  speeches  in  Congress  of  those 
years  without  realizing  that  our  country  was 
approaching  the  brink  of  a  volcano.  In  those  three 
years  there  were  three  events  which  stand  out, 
towering  above  all  others  and  throwing  long,  dark 
shadows. 

The  first  of  these  was  the  effort  on  the  part  of 
some  declamatory  Southerners,  like  Spratt  of  South 
Carolina,  and  Yancey  of  Alabama,  to  re-open  the 
slave  trade.  This  wicked  movement,  advocated  by 
a  few  and  condemned  by  the  bulk  of  the  people  in 
the  South,  not  only  did  the  South  more  discredit 
than  any  act  in  all  its  history,  but  also  had  most 
fateful  results:  for  the  Abolitionist  conscience, 
already  in  a  state  of  chronic  feverishness,  now 
became  furious,  and  turned  away  from  the  path  of 
sympathy  to  that  of  hate  and  its  fellow  companion, 
revenge. 

The  newspapers  of  those  days  are  full  of  evidence 
that  slavery  as  a  question  of  morals  was  turning 

99 


100  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

fast  into  one  that  encouraged  violence  for  its  extermi 
nation.  Here  is  an  example,  one  of  hundreds  that 
might  be  given  in  proof  of  this  raving  state  of  mind. 
It  is  from  a  pamphlet  circulated  in  Northern  Ohio 
and  New  England.  "Our  plan  is  to  land  military 
forces  in  the  Southern  States,  who  shall  raise  the 
standard  of  freedom  and  call  the  slaves  to  it  and  such 
free  persons  as  may  be  willing  to  join  it.  Our  plan 
is  to  make  war  openly  or  secretly,  as  circumstances 
may  dictate,  upon  the  property  of  the  slaveholders 
and  their  abettors,  not  for  its  destruction,  if  that 
can  be  easily  avoided,  but  to  convert  it  to  the  use 
of  the  slaves.  If  it  cannot  thus  be  converted,  we 
advise  its  destruction.  Teach  the  slaves  to  burn 
their  masters'  buildings,  to  kill  the  cattle  and  hogs, 
to  conceal  and  destroy  farming  utensils,  to  abandon 
labor  in  seedtime  and  harvest,  and  let  the  crops 
perish.  To  make  slaveholders  objects  of  derision 
and  contempt  by  flogging  them  whenever  they  shall 
be  guilty  of  flogging  their  slaves." 

Is  it  any  wonder  that,  with  a  state  of  mind  so  seeth 
ing  with  madness  as  this,  John  Brown  should  attempt 
what  he  did  —  the  seizure  of  the  United  States 
Arsenal  at  Harper's  Ferry  —  having  in  view  to  put 
its  arms  into  the  hands  of  the  slaves  whom  he 
counted  on  joining  him? 

Up  to  that  time  no  event  since  the  Nat  Turner 
Insurrection  so  startled  the  South  from  one  end  to 
the  other.  I  was  at  West  Point  in  those  days,  and 


HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY  101 

James  B.  Washington,  whose  father  was  a  nephew  of 
George  Washington,  captured  by  Brown,  was  a 
fellow  cadet  with  me,  and  I  know  how  the  event 
was  interpreted  by  every  Southern  man  in  the  Corps. 

It  is  true  that  the  bulk  of  the  Republican  Party, 
with  whom  the  original  Abolitionists  were  mainly 
incorporated,  disclaimed,  and  with  deep  sincerity, 
this  act  by  Brown.  But  their  disclaimers,  however 
sincere,  were  impugned  by  the  fact  that  on  the  day 
of  his  funeral  streets  and  houses  in  New  England 
were  draped  in  mourning,  dirges  were  sung,  and  bells 
were  tolled. 

Reader,  put  yourself  in  the  shoes  of  a  Southern 
man,  with  or  without  slaves.  Would  not  those 
draped  streets,  dirges  and  tolling  bells  have  been 
ominous  to  you?  Would  they  not  have  indicated,  as 
the  rattle  of  a  rattlesnake,  that  there  was  danger 
near?  For  could  any  sane  man  fail  to  conclude  that 
manifestation,  so  solemn  in  its  kind,  was  indicative 
of  deep-seated  passion,  one  that  even  the  horrors  of 
insurrection  could  not  put  under  restraint. 

Davis  in  an  offhand  speech  characterized  the 
John  Brown  raid  as  an  "  invasion  of  a  state  by  a 
murderous  gang  of  Abolitionists,  one  that  might 
have  had  its  germ  in  the  doctrine  of  an  irrepressible 
conflict  between  freedom  and  slavery,"  and,  refer 
ring  to  a  remark  by  a  Southerner  as  to  the  want  of 
sympathy  on  the  part  of  the  North,  he  exclaimed: 
"I  have  not  asked  for  any  sympathy.  Sympathy, 


102  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

however,  is  the  character  of  fraternity,  sympathy  is 
the  nature  of  abhorrence  of  crime;  sympathy  in  an 
odious  shuddering  at  the  spectacle  of  those  who 
came  to  incite  slaves  to  murder  helpless  women  and 
children  I  might  have  expected  in  the  breast  of  every 
gentleman." 

This  exclamation  is  so  manifestly  full  of  suppressed 
feeling  it  may  perchance  be  interesting  for  the  reader 
to  see  him  as  others  saw  him.  A  little  while  before 
the  raid,  Greely,  in  an  editorial  in  the  New  York  Trib 
une  of  August  8,  said:  "Mr.  Davis  is  unquestionably 
the  foremost  man  of  the  South  at  the  present  day. 
Every  Northern  Senator  will  admit  that  from  the 
Southern  side  of  the  floor  the  most  formidable 
adversary  to  meet  in  debate  is  the  thin,  pale,  pol 
ished,  intellectual-looking  Mississippian  with  the 
unimpassioned  demeanor,  the  habitual  courtesy  and 
the  occasional  unintentional  arrogance  which  reveals 
his  consciousness  of  great  commanding  power.  It 
is  a  mistake  to  confound  him  with  declaimers  like 
Keith  or  with  vulgar  brawlers  like  Brown,  his  Sena 
torial  colleague,  or  with  mere  scheming  politicians 
like  Greene  [of  Kentucky],  Clingman  [of  North 
Carolina],  Slidell  and  Benjamin  [of  Louisiana]. 
He  belongs  to  a  higher  grade  of  public  men  in  whom 
formerly  the  slave-holding  democracy  was  prolific." 

Greely  had  been  in  Congress  with  Davis,  and  I 
think  his  description  is  the  most  vivid  and  his  esti 
mate  probably  the  truest  that  ever  was  made  of  him. 


HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY  103 

As  a  supplement  to  what  Greely  said  of  him  we 
will  let  the  following  extract  from  a  speech  he  made 
shortly  after  Greely's  editorial  speak  for  itself. 

"And  in  this  connection  [referring  to  Senator 
Wilson  of  Massachusetts,  with  whom  he  had  been 
discussing  earnestly]  it  is  but  proper  I  should  say 
that,  if  yesterday  there  was  anything  in  my  language 
or  my  manner  which  personally  reflected  on  that 
Senator,  it  was  not  so  designed.  I  am  aware  that  I 
am  very  apt  to  be  earnest,  perhaps  some  would  say 
excited,  when  I  am  speaking,  and  it  is  due  to  myself 
that  I  should  say  now,  once  for  all,  that  I  do  not 
intend  ever  to  offer  discourtesy  to  any  gentleman. 
By  no  indirection,  by  no  equivocal  expression,  do  I 
ever  seek  to  injure  the  feelings  of  any  one." 

The  next  precursory  event  in  his  life  was  the  split 
of  the  Democratic  Party  at  Charleston  in  April, 
1860,  resulting  in  four  candidates  in  the  field  for  the 
presidency.  Lincoln  at  the  head  of  the  Republican 
Party,  confined  almost  entirely  to  the  Northern 
States,  Breckinridge  practically  to  the  South, 
Douglas  to  the  Democratic  Party  of  the  North,  and 
Bell  to  the  old-line  Union-loving  Whigs,  South  and 
North. 

Davis  has  much,  very  much  of  the  blame  to  carry 
for  this  split  in  the  party;  had  his  opposition  to 
Douglas  not  been  so  vehement  he  would  have  been 
nominated  and  stood  a  fair  chance  to  beat  Lincoln. 
But  as  we  see  things  now  in  their  true  perspective, 


104  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

the  war  between  the  sections  would  have  been  post 
poned  for  another  four  years  only,  at  most.  Deal 
with  this  and  that  political  phase  of  those  times  as 
we  may,  lay  blame  here  and  blame  there,  on  the 
leaders  North  and  South,  yet  after  all  there  was 
no  escape  from  the  bloody  conflict;  our  country's 
destiny  was  on  her  appointed  way  to  future  glories, 
and  battlefields  she  had  to  cross.  The  gist  of  the 
platforms  was  as  follows: 

The  Republican:  " Slavery  can  exist  only  by 
virtue  of  municipal  law;"  that  there  was  no  law  for 
it  in  the  Territories  and  no  power  to  enact  one,  that 
Congress  was  "bound  to  prohibit  it  in,  or  exclude 
it  from,  any  and  every  Federal  Territory,"  and  that 
it  was  the  right  and  duty  of  Congress  to  prohibit 
"  these  twin  relics  of  barbarism,  polygamy  and 
slavery"  in  the  Territories. 

The  Douglas  Party  affirmed  "the  right  of  the 
Territories  in  their  territorial  condition  to  determine 
their  own  organic  institutions,"  denying  the  power 
or  the  duty  of  Congress  to  protect  the  persons  or 
property  of  individuals  or  minorities  in  such  Terri 
tories  against  the  action  of  majorities;  in  other 
words,  they  were  to  allow  or  disallow  slavery  as 
they  saw  fit. 

The  Breckinridge  Party  claimed  that  the  Terri 
tories  were  open  for  settlement  to  citizens  of  all  the 
States  without  inequality  or  discrimination;  that  is, 
a  slaveholder  could  take  his  slaves  with  him  and 


HIS  LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  105 

on  the  same  footing  as  the  citizen  whose  property 
was  in  horses,  or  oxen  and  household  furniture; 
but  on  emerging  from  a  Territorial  government  to 
a  State,  the  people  could  then  determine  whether 
slavery  should  or  should  not  exist. 

The  Bell  Party  ignored  the  territorial  controversy 
altogether,  making  a  single  declaration  of  adherence 
to  "the  Constitution,  the  Union,  and  enforcement  of 
the  laws";  that  is,  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  which 
at  that  very  time  States  of  the  North  had  set  at 
defiance  by  imposing  imprisonment  and  fine  on  any 
of  their  citizens  who  might  try  to  enforce  it. 

During  the  campaign  Democratic  friends  of  Davis 
requested  him  to  interview  Bell,  Breckinridge  and 
Douglas,  and  urge  them  to  withdraw  in  favor  of 
some  one  on  whom  all  could  unite,  for  it  was  obvious 
that,  with  three  candidates  in  the  field,  Lincoln  was 
sure  to  be  elected.  In  compliance  with  this  request 
Davis  went  to  see  Bell  and  Breckinridge,  who  were 
ready  to  retire,  but  Douglas  said  it  was  too  late, 
that  in  case  he  withdrew  many  of  his  supporters 
would  go  to  Lincoln,  and  there  the  matter  dropped. 

Here  let  me  say  that  Douglas  has  never  been  given 
the  meed  of  praise  he  deserved;  notwithstanding  the 
Republicans  had  lit  his  way  from  Washington  to 
Chicago  by  burning  effigies  of  him,  he  stood  by 
Lincoln  after  he  was  elected,  thereby  rallying 
Northern  Democrats  to  his  side  by  hundreds  of 
thousands.  But  they  rendered  a  great  service,  in  a 


106  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

moral  sense  a  greater  service  than  that,  inasmuch 
as  after  the  war  was  over  they  were  the  first  to  hold 
out  their  hands  to  the  South  and  renew  the  old  ties, 
winning  thereby  that  victory  for  peace  which  Milton 
had  in  mind. 

The  voting  at  that  election,  the  most  historic  in 
our    annals,   may  be  to    others   what  it    is  to  me 
-  full  of  interest. 

NUMBER  OF  VOTES  CAST  FOR  CANDIDATES 

South  North  Total 

Lincoln  26,430  1,840,022  1,866,452 

Douglas  163,575  1,213,382  1,376,957 

Bell  515,973  72,906  588,879 

Breckinridge  570,951  278,830  849,701 

Analysis  of  this  tabulation  shows  that,  exclusive 
of  Lincoln's  vote,  there  were  679,548  voters  in  the 
South  who  were  not  in  sympathy  with  the  Keiths, 
Rhetts,  Wigfalls,  jSlidells  and  Yanceys,  contradicting 
so  many  of  our  historians  who,  through  oversight, 
ignorance  or  intent,  have  left  the  impression  in  some 
of  our  school  books  of  an  almost  universal  lust  for 
disunion  and  war  on  the  part  of  the  South.  And 
these  same  historians  —  is  it  unfair  to  say  consciously 
or  unconsciously  —  harboring  the  spirit  of  vengeance, 
attributed  to  Davis  the  desires  that  animated  the 
Rhetts,  Wigfalls,  Slidells  and  Yanceys;  in  fact,  that 
he  was  the  prime  mover  and  leader  for  war  and 
disunion;  a  charge  which  I  trust  the  narrative  in 
its  course  will  demonstrate  was  as  unfounded  as  it 
was  unjust. 


CHAPTER  XII 

MR.  LINCOLN'S  election  was  celebrated  with  great 
rejoicing,  but  its  bonfires  had  barely  died  out  before 
a  deep  silence  settled  all  over  the  land,  such  as  pre 
vails  at  sea  before  the  rush  of  a  tornado.  In  that 
silence  men  of  character  and  heads  of  families,  North 
and  South,  were  thinking  deeply  over  what  had 
happened.  The  doctrine  of  the  irrepressible  conflict 
had  been  obviously  approved  and  had  carried  the 
day.  The  victory  had  been  complete,  the  forces 
that  had  won  it  had  been  inspired  by  the  sins  of 
slavery. 

And  now  what?  Would  the  party  that  had 
triumphed  lay  down  its  oars,  so  to  speak,  and  bask 
in  the  sunlight  of  political  power,  or  would  the 
irrepressible  conflict  go  on?  On  the  other  hand, 
would  the  South  carry  out  its  repeated  threats  to 
secede  if  a  party  were  elected  pledged  to  confine 
and  gradually  smother  the  life  out  of  slavery. 

These  were  the  ghost-like  questions  that  would 
not  down,  and  drove  sleep  away  from  many  a  pillow. 
My  roommate  at  West  Point,  from  Georgia,  night 
after  night  would  lie  in  bed  execrating  Southern 
fire-eaters  and  Abolitionists.  His  state  of  mind  was 
a  fair  type  of  thousands  South  and  North.  Sweet, 

107 


108  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

sweet  was  his  nature!  And  no  youth  followed  the 
Confederate  flag  with  more  manliness,  higher  ideals 
or  courage  than  John  Asbury  West  of  Madison, 
Georgia.  His  memory  is  dear  to  me.  Meanwhile, 
conservative  leaders  of  the  Republican  Party,  reflect 
ing  on  the  situation  and  appreciating  their  responsi 
bility,  cast  about  for  measures  that  would  benumb 
their  victory  and  forestall  peace-breaking  move 
ments,  when  lo,  South  Carolina,  the  infatuated 
mother  of  secession,  called  a  convention  on  Novem 
ber  26  to  take  the  legal  steps  for  withdrawal  from 
the  Union. 

Like  a  fire  through  their  dead  canebrakes,  this 
madness  of  South  Carolina  went  sweeping  over  the 
Gulf  States.  The  Border  States,  however,  under 
the  lead  of  Old  Virginia,  wearing  the  mantle  of 
sovereignty,  stood  firm,  yet  in  painful  anxiety. 
Through  slavery  they  were  bound  to  the  Gulf,  but 
the  graves  of  Washington,  Jefferson,  Marshall  and 
Madison  were  pleading  that  the  ties  of  the  Union 
be  not  broken. 

It  has  always  seemed  to  me  that  the  ties  which 
bound  the  South  to  the  Union  were  wound  a  little 
closer  around  the  heart  than  in  New  England.  It 
may  have  been  a  mere  matter  of  temperament,  but 
an  agricultural  people,  alone  with  their  woods  and 
willow-bordered  streams,  have  far  deeper  and  keener 
feelings  than  the  huddled  workers  in  noisy  mills. 
You  can  sing  following  a  plough,  at  the  end  of  a 


HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY  109 

long  furrow  while  the  horses  are  resting,  you  can  look 
on  the  floating,  bulging  clouds,  can  hear  the  bob- 
white  whistle  and  the  bluebird  warble,  but  you 
cannot  take  your  eyes  off  a  clattering  loom,  lathe 
or  boot-sewing  machine;  nor  from  the  doorstep  of 
your  mill-owned  tenement,  when  the  day  is  done, 
look  off  over  fields  where  the  dew  is  gathering  on 
blooming  clover  and  blading  corn  to  catch  the  beams 
of  a  rising  moon.  To  the  planter  the  country  was  a 
sentiment;  to  the  mill-owner  and  pig-iron  manu 
facturer  a  commercial  agency. 

On  Monday,  December  3,  1860,  Congress  met, 
and  on  Thursday  a  resolution  was  offered  in  the 
Senate  for  the  appointment  of  a  Committee  of 
Thirteen  to  consider  the  state  of  the  country  and 
recommend  such  legislation  as  would  secure  its 
peace.  At  once  bitterly  acrimonious  discussion  over 
the  responsibility  for  the  crisis  began  and  continued 
growing  fiercer  day  by  day.  Although  condensed  it 
covers  pages  of  the  Congressional  Globe,  abounding 
with  epithets  and  innuendo.  It  was  nightly  clicked 
off  by  the  telegraph  to  every  leading  newspaper, 
North  and  South,  to  be  read  the  next  morning  with 
eager  interest  and  increasing  anxiety. 

On  the  twentieth  a  motion  was  made  to  adjourn 
over  the  holidays  to  January  2.  Davis  opposed  the 
motion,  saying:  "I  do  not  know  that  we'shall  achieve 
much  good  by  meeting,  but  in  the  present  perilous 
condition  of  the  country  I  am  not  willing  to  take  a 


110  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

holiday.  I  propose  that  we  shall  continue  our 
sessions,  for  good  if  God  grants  it,  and  for  evil  if 
we  will  have  it  so." 

On  the  tenth  he  had  made  quite  a  long  speech, 
some  of  which  was  very  untimely  argument,  I  think, 
but  as  we  all  know  well  when  passion  is  raging,  as 
then,  that  wise  master  counsellor,  Wisdom,  with 
draws  and  keeps  her  silence,  for  she  knows  her  voice 
will  not  be  heard.  In  the  course  of  it,  however,  he 
said  this:  "I  have  heard  with  some  surprise,  for  it 
seemed  to  me  idle,  the  repetition  of  the  assertion 
heretofore  made,  that  the  cause  of  the  separation 
was  the  election  of  Mr.  Lincoln.  It  may  be  a  source 
of  gratification  to  some  gentlemen  that  their  candi 
date  is  elected;  but  no  individual  had  the  power  to 
produce  the  existing  state  of  things.  It  was  the 
purpose,  the  end,  it  was  the  declaration  by  himself 
and  friends  which  constitutes  the  necessity  of  provid 
ing  safeguards  for  ourselves." 

Later  he  said:  "It  may  be  pardoned  me  who  in 
my  boyhood  was  given  to  the  military  service,  and 
who  have  followed  under  tropical  suns  and  over 
northern  snows  the  flag  of  the  Union,  suffering  from 
it  as  it  does  not  become  me  to  speak  of  it,  if  I  here 
express  the  deep  sorrow  which  overwhelms  me  when 
I  think  of  taking  a  last  leave  of  that  object  of  early 
affection  and  proud  association.  But  God,  who 
knows  the  heart  of  men,  will  judge  between  you  and 
us  at  whose  door  lies  the  responsibility  of  this." 


HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY  111 

After  ten  days  of  impassioned  discussion  the 
resolution  for  the  appointment  of  a  committee 
passed,  and  Davis  was  named  as  a  member.  He  at 
once  asked  to  be  excused,  but  that  night  at  the 
urgency  of  friends  he  consented  to  withdraw  his 
declination,  and  the  next  day  said: 

"Mr.  President,  in  the  very  words  which  I 
addressed  to  the  Senate  yesterday  I  intended  to 
express  my  conviction.  It  was  not  a  matter  of 
personal  feeling  with  me.  If  I  know  myself,  no 
public  duty  ever  is.  My  opinion  was  that  the  State 
of  Mississippi  having  taken  the  subject  into  her 
own  hands,  I  could  not  expect  to  work  advantage 
ously  on  the  Committee.  Neither  could  I  under  the 
circumstances  enter  upon  the  labor  as  willingly  as  I 
trust  I  have  usually  done  in  all  my  service.  But  if 
in  the  opinion  of  others  it  be  possible  for  me  to  do 
anything  for  the  public  good,  the  last  moment  while 
I  stand  here  is  at  the  command  of  the  Senate.  If  I 
could  see  any  means  by  which  I  could  avert  the 
catastrophe  of  a  struggle  between  the  sections  of  the 
Union,  my  past  life,  I  hope,  gives  evidence  of  the 
readiness  with  which  I  would  make  the  effort.  If 
there  be  any  sacrifice  which  I  could  offer  on  the 
altar  of  my  country  to  heal  all  the  evils,  present  or 
prospective,  no  man  has  the  right  to  doubt  my 
readiness  to  do  it." 

Davis  took  his  seat  on  the  committee  and  the 
record  shows  that  he  voted  again  and  again  for 


112  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

measures  aimed  to  avert  dangers  and  pacify  the 
country;  but  all  of  them  failed  to  receive  the  neces 
sary  majorities,  and  after  sitting  ten  days  it  reported 
to  Congress  that  it  could  not  agree,  and  on  December 
31  was  discharged. 

Meanwhile  the  Gulf  States,  including  his  own, 
had  called  conventions  that  were  then  in  session, 
and  looking  back  at  them  now,  their  members  in 
tempestuous  delirium  appear  like  so  many  dead 
leaves  in  the  swirl  of  the  whirlwinds  we  sometimes 
see  on  a  clear  summer's  day.  On  January  5  a  con 
ference  of  Southern  Senators  and  Representatives 
was  held  in  Washington,  and  at  its  end  a  letter  was 
written  to  their  respective  Governors  stating  that 
every  measure  to  preserve  peace  had  failed  and 
that  in  their  judgment  secession  was  the  only 
ultimate  safeguard  for  their  interests.  Davis  was 
present  and  signed  this  report,  and,  whatsoever 
penalty  may  be  the  final  verdict,  he  must  bear  it. 

While  this  letter  may  have  accelerated  the  move 
ment,  no  power  this  side  of  Heaven  could  have 
stopped  it.  Back  of  the  North  was  the  aroused 
conscience  of  the  civilized  world  in  its  attitude 
toward  slavery;  back  of  the  South  was  the  funda 
mental  political  axiom  that  peoples  have  the  inalien 
able  right  to  decide  the  form  and  spirit  of  govern 
ment  which  they  will  tolerate  and  submit  to. 

Mississippi  withdrew  on  January  9;  and,  in  con 
nection  with  this  step,  there  was  a  preceding  one 


HIS   LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  113 

which  throws  some  light  on  Davis.  In  November, 
after  South  Carolina  had  taken  wing,  the  Governor 
of  Mississippi  called  home  its  Representatives  in 
Congress  for  consultation  as  to  the  course  of  the 
State  relative  to  secession.  O.  R.  Singleton,  one  of 
the  members  of  the  House  who  was  present,  wrote 
as  follows  concerning  that  conference: 

"The  debate  lasted  many  hours  and  Mr.  Davis, 
with  perhaps  one  other  gentleman,  opposed  imme 
diate  and  separate  State  action,  declaring  himself 
opposed  to  secession  as  long  as  the  hope  of  a  peace 
able  remedy  remained.  He  did  not  believe  we  ought 
to  precipitate  the  issue,  as  he  felt  certain  from  his 
knowledge  of  the  people  North  as  well  as  South, 
that  once  there  was  a  clash  of  arms,  the  contest 
would  be  one  of  the  most  sanguinary  the  world  had 
ever  witnessed. 

A  majority  of  the  meeting  decided  that  no  delay 
be  interposed  for  separate  State  action,  Mr.  Davis 
being  on  the  other  side,  but  after  the  vote  was  taken 
and  the  question  decided,  Mr.  Davis  declared  he 
would  stand  by  whatever  action  the  Convention, 
representing  the  sovereignty  of  the  State  of  Missis 
sippi,  should  think  proper  to  take.  After  the  con 
ference  ended,  several  of  its  members  were  dissatisfied 
with  the  course  of  Mr.  Davis,  believing  that  he  was 
entirely  opposed  to  secession  and  was  seeking  to 
delay  action  upon  the  part  of  Mississippi  with  the 
hope  that  it  might  be  entirely  averted." 


114  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

Clay  of  Alabama,  who  was  arrested  and  confined 
in  Fort  Monroe  with  Davis,  sometime  before  death 
overtook  him,  wrote:  "Mr.  Davis  did  not  take  an 
active  part  in  planning  or  hastening  secession. 
I  think  he  only  regretfully  consented  to  it  as  a 
political  necessity  for  the  preservation  of  State 
Rights. 

I  know  that  some  leading  men  and  even  Mississip- 
pians  thought  him  too  moderate  and  backward, 
and  found  fault  with  him  for  not  taking  a  leading 
part  in  secession." 

These  letters  from  friends  of  Jefferson  Davis  were 
written  after  the  war  and  are  to  be  construed  in 
the  light  of  defense  and  sympathy  for  a  lost  cause. 
But  does  defeat  crush  the  life  out  of  all  honor  and 
truthfulness?  If  the  Revolution  had  met  that  fate, 
would  a  letter  from  Hamilton,  John  Marshall,  or 
John  Adams  be  discredited  as  to  anything  they  saw, 
heard,  or  did  before  they  took  their  stand  against 
Great  Britain?  We  think  not;  for  honor  and  truth 
fulness  are  deep-rooted  plants  in  the  American 
character.  Give  these  letters,  then,  the  weight  which 
the  scales  of  reason  and  knowledge  of  human 
nature  may  say  is  their  worth  as  evidence. 

The  official  notice  from  the  Governor  of  Missis 
sippi,  that  the  State  had  withdrawn  from  the 
Union,  reached  Davis  on  the  twentieth  of  January, 
1861,  and  on  that  day  he  wrote  to  Ex-President 
Pierce: 


HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY  113 

"  I  have  often  and  sadly  turned  my  thoughts  to 
you  during  the  troublous  times  through  which  we 
have  been  passing,  and  now  I  come  to  the  hard  task 
of  announcing  to  you  that  the  hour  is  at  hand  which 
closes  my  connection  with  the  United  States  for  the 
independence  and  union  of  which  my  father  bled 
and  in  the  service  of  which  I  have  sought  to  emulate 
the  example  he  set  for  my  guidance.  .  .  . 

May  God  bless  you  is  ever  the  prayer  of  your 
friend,  JEFFERSON  DAVIS." 

It  was  known  that,  on  the  following  day,  Davis 
would  take  leave  of  the  Senate,  and  as  soon  as  the 
doors  were  opened  the  galleries,  aisles,  and  all 
standing  room  were  filled.  Every  Senator  was  in 
his  seat,  all  eyes  were  on  Davis,  and  awe  and  wonder 
were  in  every  heart-beat. 

The  hour  came,  he  rose  —  care  had  left  her  tracks 
of  a  sleepless  night  in  his  pale  face  and,  as  his  eyes 
swept  the  men  he  had  served  with  so  long,  streams 
of  regret  poured  out  of  them  for  agreeable  associa 
tions  that  would  never  be  enjoyed  again. 

His  voice  at  first  was  low  —  he  had  been  unwell 
for  several  days  —  but  as  he  went  on  restating  the 
grounds  of  his  political  views,  the  sovereignty  of 
the  States  and  their  right  to  exercise  that  sovereignty 
in  the  face  of  appalling  dangers,  his  voice  regained 
its  vibrating,  winsome  modulation  and  earnestness. 
He  closed  as  follows: 


116  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

"In  the  course  of  my  service  here,  associated  at 
different  times  with  a  great  variety  of  Senators, 
I  see  now  around  me  some  with  whom  I  have  served 
long;  there  have  been  points  of  difference,  but 
whatever  of  offense  there  has  been  to  me,  I  leave 
here.  I  carry  with  me  no  hostile  remembrance. 
Whatever  offense  I  have  given  which  has  not  been 
redressed,  or  for  which  satisfaction  has  not  been 
demanded  I  have,  Senators,  in  the  hour  of  our 
parting  to  offer  you  my  apology  for  every  pain  which 
in  the  heat  of  discussion  I  have  inflicted.  I  go  hence 
unencumbered  by  the  remembrance  of  any  injury 
received,  and  having  discharged  the  duty  of  making 
the  only  reparation  in  my  power  for  any  injury 
offered. 

Mr.  President  and  Senators,  having  made  the 
announcement  which  the  occasion  seemed  to  me  to 
require,  it  only  remains  for  me  to  bid  you  a  final 
adiewr" 

,Xj?here  is  a  strain  of  knightly  manliness,  its  tones 
mingled  with  sorrow  and  regret,  running  through 
the  conclusion  of  this  leave-taking;  a  strain  that 
the  spirit  of  the  dead  Confederacy  can  dwell  on  in 
her  loneliness  with  pensive  pride. 

We  doubt  if  in  all  his  career  he  ever  rose  above 
the  level  of  that  occasion;  nor  one,  it  seems  to  me, 
when  all  the  elements  of  his  character  were  in  fairer 
light  or  fuller  play.  That  apology  for  any  wrong" 
or  pain  inflicted;  that  assurance  to  his  associates 


II 


HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY  117 

in  the  Senate  of  going  away  unencumbered  by  the 
remembrance  of  a  single  injury  received  from  any 
one  of  them,  speak  for  the  inborn  goodwill  and 
chivalry  of  his  nature. 

Persons  who  were  present  say  that  as  he  made 
his  way  out  of  the  Senate  Chamber,  hushed  by  a 
portentous  awe  of  what  it  all  meant,  he  was  followed 
by  many  swimming  eyes. 

This  farewell  to  the  Senate  marked  one  of  the 
crests  in  his  life's  travelled  road.  Behind  him  lay 
what  has  already  been  set  forth,  his  services  to  his 
country  in  the  field  where  he  shed  his  blood  in 
defense  of  her  flag;  his  Congressional  and  official 
life  where  he  had  been  steadfastly  loyal  to  her  ideals. 
Meanwhile  not  a  stain  had  fallen  on  his  private, 
nor  a  charge  of  insincerity  or  unscrupulous  ambition 
on  his  public,  character.  The  broad-minded  Repub 
licans  in  the  Senate,  although  opposing  and  con 
demning  his  political  views,  nevertheless  held  him 
personally  in  highest  respect,  and  those  of  both 
parties  who  knew  him  intimately,  in  warmest 
affection.  \  ]^s  for  the  public  at  large  he  had  never 
courted  its  esteem,  yet  he  had  never  joined  a  group 
or  addressed  an  assemblage,  North  or  South,  in 
Faneuil  Hall  or  New  Orleans,  without  securing  it 
-  a  mighty  proof  of  his  intellectual  power  and  the 
atmosphere  of  personality  in  which  nature  had 
clothed  him.  On  every  occasion  in  all  the  years 
that  now  lay  behind  him,  he  had  stood  for  the 


118  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

sovereignty  of  the  States  as  well  as  the  sovereignty 
of  the  Government  which  they  had  created  and  set 
over  them;  maintaining  that  there  was  a  vein  con 
necting  the  political  bodies  of  both  in  which  the 
same  blood  flowed  with  every  heart-beat  of  the 
Nation. 

It  is  true,  and  natural,  that  the  inveterate  haters 
of  slavery  and  the  South  were  glad  to  see  the  last 
of  him;  inasmuch  as  for  years  they  had  suffered,  as 
the  ambitious  always  suffer,  in  the  presence  of  an 
opponent  born  into  a  class  of  acknowledged  social 
prestige  who  meets  their  heated  arguments,  not 
only  with  cool,  masterful  reply,  but  also  uniform 
urbanity,  augmented  in  Davis'  case  with  that 
unconscious  air  of  austerity  in  which  nature  had 
wrapped  him.  Many  had  been  their  conflicts  with 
him,  but  he  had  never  lost  his  self-control;  not  even 
when  defending  the  South  from  their  severe  denun 
ciation  and,  at  times,  outrageous  abuse;  moreover, 
he  used  no  opprobrious  or  abusive  language,  yet 
there  was  a  tone  of  challenging  defiance  in  his  voice 
and  manner  that  showed  indignation.  His  departure, 
then,  from  Congress  was  the  end  of  a  long  and  galling 
servitude  for  leaders  that  might  be  mentioned;  a 
servitude  of  a  kind  and  nature  that  always  forges 
while  it  is  endured  those  well-known  characteristic 
weapons  —  obloquy  and  revenge.  The  history  of 
our  country  abundantly  shows  that,  so  long  as 
certain  leaders  and  their  disciples  lived,  these 


HIS   LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  119 

weapons  were  in  use,  let  the  spirit  of  goodwill  and 
magnanimity  which  Grant  showed  Lee  at  Appomat- 
tox  plead  as  it  may  with  their  users  to  lay  them  down. 

Mrs.  Davis  says  in  her  Memoirs  that  that  night 
she  heard  the  often  reiterated  prayer,  "May  God 
have  us  all  in  His  holy  keeping,  and  grant  that 
before  it  is  too  late,  peaceful  councils  may  prevail." 
That  prayer  was  not  alone  in  its  heavenward  flight; 
like  prayers  were  going  up  from  many  a  bended 
knee  in  North  and  South. 

As  soon  as  they  could  gather  up  their  belongings, 
Davis,  Mrs.  Davis  and  the  three  children  set  off 
for  home. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE  States  of  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Florida, 
Alabama,  Mississippi  and  Louisiana  having  seceded, 
held  conventions  and  appointed  delegates  to  meet  in 
Montgomery,  Alabama,  on  February  4  and  there  lay 
the  foundation  of  a  provisional  government.  These 
delegates  were  chosen  from  the  political  leadership 
class,  men  who  had  made  their  mark;  some  for  native 
ability;  some  for  glowing  eloquence;  all  for  well- 
sustained  integrity  and  character.  Among  them 
were  Toombs,  Stephens,  the  brothers  Howell  and 
T.  R.  Cobb  of  Georgia,  Judge  Chilton  of  Alabama, 
Rhett,  Withers  and  Barnwell  of  South  Carolina. 
Barnwell  was  a  very  wealthy  planter  carrying  the 
atmosphere  of  gentleness,  thoughtfulness  and  right 
eousness;  a  fine  type  of  man  for  the  building  of  a 
State. 

By  the  time  they  reached  Montgomery,  it  was 
overflowing  with  rabid  politicians  from  all  over  the 
Southern  States,  hankering  for  war  and  swaggering 
in  every  hotel  lobby  and  in  every  garish  barroom. 
The  delegates,  forty-two  out  of  the  forty-eight 
appointed,  organized  by  electing  Howell  Cobb  for 
chairman,  a  bulky  man  with  a  broad  face,  double 
chin  and  mild,  serious  eyes,  who  had  lately  left 

120 


HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY  121 

Buchanan's  disrupting  Cabinet,  and  was  an  ardent 
Secessionist.  He  and  his  brother  were  men  of  fine, 
high  character  and  their  memories  are  cherished  by 
their  native  State  to  this  day. 

The  Convention  proceeded  at  once  to  draft  a 
constitution  for  the  provisional  government,  taking 
the  one  their  forefathers  had  built  and  making  only 
such  changes  as  would  more  explicitly  embody 
their  ideas  of  state  sovereignty,  and  such  notions 
of  administration  as  experience  under  the  old  one 
had  suggested. 

Along  toward  midnight  on  Friday  the  eighth, 
the  Constitution  was  agreed  upon,  and  the  Conven 
tion  adjourned  till  noon  the  next  day  for  choice  of  a 
president,  a  captain  to  sail  the  ship  they  had 
launched  in  the  face  of  a  stormy  sea;  the  voting  to 
be  by  States.  As  it  turned  out,  there  were  three 
delegates  who  in  secret  cherished  the  hope  that 
they  would  be  chosen  for  the  presidency,  the  chair 
man  Cobb,  Stephens  and  Toombs,  all  from  Georgia. 

Stephens  in  body  was  a  puny  man  with  a  sad, 
appealing,  beardless  face,  his  eyes  a  rich  hazel, 
his  voice  thin  and  high.  He  had  vigorously  opposed 
secession,  and  Lincoln  had  practically  offered  him 
a  place  in  his  Cabinet;  the  letters  they  exchanged 
on  this  matter  are  well  worth  reading  for  the  light 
they  throw  on  the  times  and  the  men  themselves. 

Toombs  was  in  marked  contrast  to  Stephens; 
he  was  conspicuously  large,  with  plenteous,  shiny, 


122  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

black  hair  and  glistening  white  teeth  which  flashed 
in  his  laughter,  for  by  nature  he  was  joyous,  but 
when  in  office,  however,  there  was  an  air  of  urgent, 
imperative  demeanor  about  him,  re-inforced  by 
abilities  that  had  no  acknowledged  equal  among 
his  fellows  to  master  the  intricacies  of  finance  or 
problems  of  state  administration.  Beneath  all 
these  endowments  was  an  unsubduable  restlessness 
when  under  authority  which  impaired  his  usefulness, 
annoyed  his  superiors,  and  embittered  his  old  age. 

As  soon  as  the  Convention  adjourned,  T.  R.  Cobb, 
a  younger  brother  of  the  chairman  and  who  wrote 
to  his  wife  almost  daily,  in  a  letter  written  on  the 
eleventh  says:  "We  had  a  counting  by  noses  and 
found  that  Alabama,  Mississippi  and  Florida  were 
for  Davis,  Louisiana  and  Georgia  for  my  brother 
Howell,  South  Carolina  divided  between  Davis  and 
Cobb  with  Memminger  and  Withers  wavering. 
Howell  immediately  announced  his  wish  that  Davis 
should  be  nominated  unanimously." 

When  the  Georgia  delegation  met  at  ten  o'clock, 
Stephens  at  once  moved  that  a  complimentary 
vote  be  given  Toombs.  Whereupon  T.  R.  Cobb 
observed  that  it  would  put  Toombs  in  an  awkward 
position,  as  four  of  the  six  States  were  for  Davis. 
That  was  a  surprise  to  Toombs  and,  doubting  the 
statement,  he  asked  Crawford,  one  of  its  members, 
to  go  out  and  report  the  facts.  On  Crawford's 
return  verifying  Cobb's  statement  that  Davis 


HIS   LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  123 

was  virtually  the  choice  of  all  the  other  states, 
Toombs  with  spontaneous  good  will  nominated 
Stephens  for  the  vice-presidency.  A  dead  silence 
ensued  upon  this  very  unexpected  move;  then  Howell 
Cobb  got  up  and  went  out,  followed  by  Barton  his 
colleague,  who  was  killed  at  Bull  Run.  The  younger 
Cobb  wrote  to  his  wife  that  it  was  a  bitter  pill  to 
swallow  —  Stephens,  who  had  opposed  secession,  had 
been  rewarded  with  its  first  honors. 

At  noon  the  delegates  met  and  elected  Davis 
and  Stephens  unanimously,  and  appointed  a  special 
messenger  to  notify  Davis  of  his  election.  The 
Convention  then  took  up  the  framing  of  a  consti 
tution  for  the  permanent  government.  T.  R.  Cobb, 
a  profoundly  religious  man,  an  elder  in  the 
Presbyterian  Church,  offered  four  motions:  that 
the  newborn  government  should  be  named  "the 
Republic  of  Washington";  that  there  should  be 
an  explicit  recognition  of  God;  that  the  slave  trade 
be  absolutely  forbidden;  and  no  mails  be  carried 
on  Sunday.  This  last  motion  was  lost  by  a  single 
vote;  and,  fortunately  for  South  and  North,  the 
Convention  defeated  his  first  motion,  sparing  the 
name  of  Washington  from  association  with  the 
tragedy  of  a  sectional  war.  The  other  motions 
prevailed. 

Before  Davis  reached  Montgomery,  Cobb  wrote         ^ 
his  wife  saying:  "The  best  friends  of  the  Confederacy 
here    are    troubled    at    the    continuous    rumors    of 


124  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

Davis  being  a  Reconstructionist ;  that  is,  one  ready 
to  make  a  settlement  with  the  North  and  the 
States  resume  their  places  in  the  Union." 

Do  not  these  rumors  bear  some  testimony,  at 
least,  that  Davis  had  not  held  extreme  views? 
We  think  they  do. 

A  few  days  before  the  arrival  of  the  special 
messenger  bearing  the  tidings  of  his  election,  Davis 
had  had  a  conference  with  the  foremost  among 
the  slaves,  advising  them  in  case  public  affairs 
should  call  him  away,  to  have  a  care  for  the  planta 
tion,  and  above  all  to  look  after  the  aged  and  helpless. 

Upon  asking  Bob,  the  oldest  among  them  and 
who  had  suffered  long  from  rheumatism,  what  he 
would  like  for  his  comfort,  he  requested  rocking 
chairs  for  himself  and  Rhinah  his  wife.  Davis 
bought  the  chairs  as  well  as  a  number  of  blankets 
for  the  old  couple,  and  cochineal  flannel  for  Bob 
to  wrap  his  rheumatic  limbs.  Mrs.  Davis  says 
in  her  Memoirs  that  when  the  Union  soldiers  after 
the  fall  of  Vicksburg  sacked  the  plantation,  they 
took  all  of  Uncle  Bob's  blankets,  declaring  against 
his  remonstrances  that  he  had  stolen  them. 

The  special  messenger  found  Davis  in  his  garden 
assisting  in  rose-cutting;  that  night  he  assembled 
all  his  slaves  and  bade  them  an  affectionate  farewell, 
and  the  next  morning  started  for  Montgomery. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

;<  ' 

DAVIS'  inauguration  took  place  in  the  Capitol, 
whither  he  was  accompanied  by  Stephens  the  vice- 
president,   and  a  Reverend  Mr.  Manly.    Alabama 
had  provided  a  handsome  coach  lined  with  saffron 
and  white  silk  hangings,  and  drawn  by  six  spirited 
iron-gray  horses  driven  by  a  colored  man,  of  course, 
who  doubtless  was  the  proudest  of  his  race  that  day. 
The   marshals    were    decorated    with    white    silk 
scarfs,   every  building  in  holiday  attire,  and  vast, 
cheering   crowds,   white  and   black,   thronging   the 
streets.     On    arrival    at  the    State    House,    Davis 
was   conducted    by   Rhett   of   South  Carolina   and 
Chilton   of   Alabama   to   the    Congress    in   session; 
Rhett  saying:  " Gentlemen  of  the  Congress,  allow 
me  to  present  to  you  the  Honorable  Jefferson  Davis, 
who  in  obedience  to  your  choice  has  come  to  assume 
the  important  trust  you  have  confided  to  his  care." 
Davis  was  then  escorted  to  a  platform  erected 
in  front  of  the  imposing  Capitol;  on  a  table  lay  the 
Bible  in  the  midst  of  a  wreath  of  red,  white  and 
blue  flowers.    If  that  blessed,   sacred  book  should 
write  its  memoirs,  we  are  quite  sure  it  will  embrace 
that  wreath  of  red,  white  and  blue  among  the  mighty 
incidents   of   its   wondrous   career.     He   took   the 

125 


126  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

oath  and  then  read  his  inaugural.  Its  close  was  as 
follows : 

"  Reverently  let  us  invoke  the  God  of  our  fathers 
to  guide  and  protect  us  in  our  efforts  to  perpetuate 
the  principle  which  by  His  blessing  they  were  able 
to  vindicate,  establish  and  transmit  to  their  posterity. 
With  the  continuance  of  His  favor  ever  gratefully 
acknowledged,  we  may  hopefully  look  forward  to 
success  and  prosperity/7 

His  inaugural  was  not  keyed  on  home,  its  fire 
sides,  its  inalienable  rights  to  be  free  from  a  perpet 
ually  menacing  danger,  but  on  bleak,  cold-blooded 
legal  rights;  and  thus,  lacking  in  sentiment  and 
appeal,  falls  far  below,  as  an  effective  State  paper, 
that  of  Lincoln  delivered  a  few  weeks  later.  Napoleon 
said,  and  it  is  true,  "  'Tis  by  speaking  to  the  soul 
that  you  electrify  men."  These  two  inaugurals 
make  clear  the  difference  of  the  mold  and  clay 
in  the  natures  of  these  two  historically  linked-up 
characters. 

Davis,  in  dwelling  upon  the  men  for  his  Cabinet, 
had  decided  upon  Toombs  for  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  and  Barnwell  of  South  Carolina  for 
Secretary  of  State.  It  so  happened  that  he  first  wrote 
to  Barnwell,  who  meanwhile,  having  joined  his 
fellow-members  of  the  Provisional  Congress  in 
recommending  their  colleague  Memminger,  a  com 
mercial  lawyer,  for  Secretary  of  the  Treasury, 
declined  on  grounds  of  propriety,  knowing  well  that 


HIS   LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  127 

public  opinion  would  not  approve  of  South  Carolina 
holding  two  appointments  in  the  Cabinet.  Davis 
then  offered  the  position  to  Toombs,  who  after 
some  hesitation  accepted. 

The  other  positions  were  filled  by  Walker  of 
Alabama  for  Secretary  of  War,  Mallory  of  Florida 
for  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  Reagan  of  Texas  for 
Postmaster-General;  for  Attorney-General,  Benjamin 
of  Louisiana,  a  Hebrew  born  with  a  perpetual 
smile,  who  had  married  a  French  Roman  Catholic 
and  was  by  far  the  all-around  ablest  man 
in  the  Cabinet.  He  had  served  in  the  Senate  with 
Davis,  and  on  one  occasion  when  debating  an 
army  bill,  Davis,  in  a  nervous,  irascible  state  from 
illness,  made  remarks  in  replying  to  him  that  he 
felt  were  insulting.  He  sent  Davis  a  challenge  by 
the  hands  of  Senator  Bayard  of  Delaware.  Davis 
on  reading  the  challenge  tore  it  up,  saying:  "I  was 
all  wrong,  and  will  apologize  to  Benjamin, "  and 
the  next  day  in  open  Senate  made  handsome  amends. 

Davis,  in  the  first  letter  to  his  wife  after 
reaching  Montgomery,  said:  "I  was  inaugurated  on 
Wednesday.  Upon  my  weary  heart  were  showered 
smiles,  plaudits  and  flowers,  but  beyond  them  I 
saw  troubles  and  thorns  innumerable.  We  are 
without  machinery,  without  means,  and  threatened 
by  a  powerful  opposition,  but  I  do  not  despond 
and  will  not  shrink  from  the  task  imposed  upon  it. " 

That  he  thoroughly  realized  the  South's  unreadi- 


128  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

ness  for  war  is  made  clear  by  a  resume  of  its  unpre- 
paredness  found  among  the  papers  of  Colonel 
Gorgas,  Chief  of  Ordnance  for  the  Confederacy. 
Gorgas  was  a  graduate  of  West  Point;  he  married 
a  daughter  of  Governor  Gayle  of  Alabama  and, 
although  a  Pennsylvanian,  joined  the  South.  It 
was  his  son,  a  surgeon  in  the  United  States  Army, 
who  overcame  yellow  fever,  gaining  a  fame  that 
winged  its  way  the  world  around.  It  appears  from 
the  papers  of  Colonel  Gorgas  that  there  were  about  one 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  arms  in  the  arsenals,  chiefly 
smooth-bore  muskets;  no  equipment  for  infantry, 
artillery  or  cavalry;  no  field  artillery  or  cartridges 
[the  state  and  volunteer  militia  companies,  however, 
had  a  few  batteries  and  serviceable  arms];  no  rifle, 
and  only  about  sixty  thousand  pounds  of  old  cannon 
powder,  and  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  per 
cussion  caps;  no  machinery  in  the  arsenals  to 
speak  of  and  not  a  firearm  or  gun  carriage  had 
been  made  in  the  South  for  fifty  years;  not  a  rifle 
powder  mill,  and  but  one  cannon  foundry,  the 
Tredegar  Works  at  Richmond,  in  the  entire  South. 
For  years  after  the  War  the  charge  was  made, 
and  it  is  believed  to  be  true  to  this  day  by  thousands 
of  naturally  fair-minded  people  born  since  the 
conflict,  that  the  South,  premeditating  secession, 
secured  the  transfer  from  the  North  of  vast  quantities 
of  small  arms  and  cannon.  Here  are  the  facts  as 
established  by  Congressional  investigation: 


HIS   LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  129 

First.  The  Ordnance  Department  in  1857  offered 
for  sale  fifty  out  of  one  hundred  and  ninety  thousand 
muskets  on  hand.  The  only  Southern  State  that 
made  a  bid  was  Louisiana;  it  bid  for  five  thousand 
at  the  rate  of  $2.50  apiece,  and  finally  took  only 
two  thousand  five  hundred;  the  balance  were  left 
on  the  hands  of  the  Department. 

Second.  On  the  twenty-ninth  of  December, 
1859,  eleven  months  before  Lincoln's  election,  the 
Secretary  of  War  ordered  one-fifth  of  the  old  flint 
lock  and  percussion  muskets  stored  at  the  Springfield 
Armory,  Springfield,  Mass.,  to  be  sent  to  Southern 
arsenals  to  make  room  for  guns  of  a  better  model. 
[It  was  the  barrels  of  these  guns  that  inspired 
Longfellow's  poem.]  One  hundred  and  fifteen 
thousand  were  sent,  and  they  were  included  in 
Gorgas'  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand. 

Third.  In  late  December,  1860,  financial  irreg 
ularities  of  a  serious  nature  on  the  part  of  John  B. 
Floyd  of  Virginia,  Secretary  of  War,  who  up  to 
that  time  had  been  a  pronounced  opponent  of 
secession,  were  called  to  the  attention  of  Buchanan, 
who  asked  for  explanations.  Floyd,  so  it  was  alleged, 
foreseeing  an  enforced  resignation  with  its  trailing 
disgrace,  shifted  from  an  opponent  to  an  advocate 
of  secession  and,  during  the  ten  days  preceding 
his  formal  resignation,  ordered  cannon  to  be  sent 
from  Pittsburgh  to  forts  along  the  southern  coast. 
But  the  eyes  of  the  North,  doubting  his  loyalty, 


130  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

were  on  him,  and  his  orders  were  countermanded; 
these  guns  thundered  at  last  in  defense  of  the 
Government  that  had  made  them.  So  much,  then, 
for  the  proof  of  premeditation  on  the  part  of  the 
South  to  make  war  on  the  North  [as  a  matter  of 
fact  it  had  never  gone  a  step  beyond  fits  of  bluster] ; 
and  so  much,  too,  for  the  prospect  that  spread 
away  from  the  " smiles,  plaudits  and  flowers"  of  the 
inauguration  of  its  first  and  only  President. 

On  the  twenty-seventh  of  February,  Davis 
appointed  three  Commissioners  to  go  to  Washington 
for  the  "  settlement  of  all  questions  of  disagreement 
between  the  two  governments  upon  principles  of 
right,  justice,  equity  and  good  faith." 

They  arrived  in  Washington  a  few  days  before 
Buchanan's  fluctuating,  bewildered  administration 
ended,  but  to  his  credit,  he  refused  them  audience. 


CHAPTER  XV 

AND  now  that  we  may  have  a  clear  view  of  the 
actual  outbreak  of  the  war  by  the  firing  on  Fort 
Sumter  and  Davis'  responsibility  for  that  prodigious 
tactical  blunder,  we  must  turn  back  from  the 
eighteenth  of  February,  the  date  of  his  inauguration, 
to  December  11.  On  that  day  the  War  Department 
in  Washington  wrote  to  Major  Anderson,  a  Ken- 
tuckian  commanding  a  company  of  Regulars,  the 
only  forces  in  Charleston,  and  who  was  occupying 
Fort  Moultrie  on  Sullivan's  Island,  a  weak  and  easily 
accessible  fieldwork:  "You  are  carefully  to  avoid 
every  act  which  would  needlessly  tend  to  provoke 
aggression;  and  for  that  reason  you  are  not,  without 
evident  and  imminent  necessity,  to  take  up  any 
position  which  could  be  construed  into  the  assump 
tion  of  a  hostile  attitude,  but  you  are  to  hold  pos 
session  of  the  forts  of  the  harbor,  and  if  attacked 
you  are  to  defend  yourself  to  the  last  extremity." 

To  comprehend  fully  the  circumstance  under 
which  he  exercised  the  powers  and  intent  of  this 
order,  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  ever  since 
South  Carolina  had  seceded  she  had  indulged  in  an 
orgy  of  bluster  and  grotesque  assumptions  of  sov 
ereignty,  which  in  the  light  of  today  are  amusing 
and  astounding.  For  example,  it  sent  three  Com- 

131 


132  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

missioners  to  Washington  empowered  to  treat  with 
the  Government  of  the  United  States  for  the  delivery 
of  the  forts,  magazines  and  lighthouses  in  South  Caro 
lina;  for  an  apportionment  of  the  public  debt;  a  part 
of  the  territories;  and  division  of  all  other  property 
held  by  the  Government  of  the  United  States,  which 
of  course  meant  ships,  gold  in  the  treasury,  etc. 
Indeed,  from  the  Governor  down  to  the  whiskey 
and  brandy  decanting  barkeepers  in  shirt  sleeves 
of  the  crowded  saloons,  a  fantastic  war  delirium 
prevailed  in  Charleston.  All  business  in  that  rose- 
blooming,  beautiful  city  was  suspended,  and  gaily 
dressed  militia  companies,  carrying  the  Palmetto 
flag  and  keeping  step  proudly  to  fife  and  drum, 
paraded  the  streets  daily,  manifesting  an  ever- 
increasing  disrespect  for  Anderson  and  his  soldiers. 
As  early  as  November  29  the  Governor  wrote  to  a 
Mr.  Prescott,  Assistant  Secretary  of  State  at 
Washington,  who  was  secretly  informing  him  of  all 
that  was  going  on  in  the  various  departments: 
"I  have  found  great  difficulty  in  restraining  the 
people  of  Charleston  from  seizing  the  forts,  etc." 
The  situation  became  so  threatening  at  last  that 
Anderson,  on  the  night  after  Christmas,  spiked  the 
guns,  burned  their  carriages,  and  transferred  his 
command  to  Fort  Sumter  three  miles  down  the 
harbor  from  the  city. 

This  move  startled  South  Carolina;  but  delighted 
the  men  of  backbone  in  the  North,  who,  although 


HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY  133 

not  in  favor  of  war,  were  resenting  her  bullying 
gasconade.  This  display  of  loyalty  lifted  Anderson 
to  fame,  and  the  chime  of  bells  hung  in  his  honor 
in  the  belfry  of  West  Point's  stately  chapel  over 
looking  the  Hudson  and  Highlands  does  now  and 
will  through  coming  years  proclaim  his  name. 

South  Carolina,  frothing  with  rage,  began  to 
throw  up  batteries  bearing  on  Sumter  and  along 
the  channel  leading  out  to  the  ocean  four  miles 
away,  to  prevent  any  ship  coming  in  with  reinforce 
ments  for  Anderson;  meanwhile,  the  Governor  of 
the  State  sent  one  of  his  aides  demanding  "  cour 
teously  but  peremptorily"  that  he  should  return 
his  command  to  Fort  Moultrie,  which  Anderson, 
with  language  equally  courteous  and  peremptory, 
declined  to  do. 

The  Administration,  as  soon  as  it  heard  from 
him,  secretly  took  steps  for  his  reinforcement  and 
relief;  on  the  fifth  of  January  the  Star  of  the  West, 
a  merchant  vessel  sailed  from  New  York  with  one 
hundred  fifty  Regulars,  and  supplies.  The  ship 
reached  the  mouth  of  the  harbor  on  the  ninth  and, 
as  soon  as  she  came  within  range  on  her  inward 
trip  to  Sumter,  batteries  opened  on  her  and  she 
had  to  withdraw  and  return  home. 

It  is  easy  now  to  see  that,  had  Buchanan,  as  he 
first  intended,  sent  the  Brooklyn  —  intrepid  Farrugut 
was  in  command  of  her  —  instead  of  the  Star  of  the 
West,  the  history  of  those  days  would  not  be  what 


134  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

it  is  and  the  roar  of  the  Brooklyn's  guns  would  be 
heard  to  this  day  in  literature  and  poetry;  but  at 
the  urgent  advice  of  friends  to  avoid  giving  offense 
and  provoking  war,  he  sent  a  merchant,  and  not  a 
war,  vessel. 

The  Governor  of  South  Carolina  now  posted  her 
Attorney-General  to  Washington  with  some  pre 
posterous  demands.  Davis,  who  had  not  yet  resigned 
his  seat  in  the  Senate,  joined  the  Senators  from 
Florida,  Louisiana,  and  Texas  in  a  letter  to  him 
saying:  "We  desire  to  see  such  an  adjustment,  and 
to  prevent  war  or  the  shedding  of  blood.  We  must 
and  will  share  your  fortunes,  suffering  with  you  the 
evils  of  war  if  it  cannot  be  avoided;  and  enjoying 
with  you  the  blessings  of  peace,  if  it  can  be  preserved. 
We  therefore  think  it  especially  due  from  South 
Carolina  —  to  say  nothing  of  other  slaveholding 
States  —  that  she  should,  as  far  as  she  can  consist 
ently  with  her  honor,  avoid  initiating  hostilities 
between  her  and  the  United  States,  or  any  other 
power."  It  has  been  charged  by  several  historians 
that  this  letter  was  a  mere  mask  on  Davis'  part 
to  give  the  South  more  time  to  get  ready  for  war. 
On  the  contrary  I  am  willing  to  believe  he  was 
plotting  for  time  to  give  the  old  love  of  the  Union 
time  to  make  one  more  appeal,  hoping  thereby  that 
adjustments  might  be  made  at  last  to  avoid  blood 
shed.  We  leave  that,  however,  to  the  final  judge 
of  us  all. 


HIS   LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  135 

Buchanan  very  properly  refused  to  give  an 
audience  to  the  South  Carolinian  ambassador.  The 
cloud  that  envelops  Buchanan  is  black  and  deep; 
but,  when  all  the  facts  are  laid  bare  the  conclusion 
is  irresistible,  that  great  injustice  has  been  done 
him.  Oh,  the  ghosts  that  shriek  from  the  graveyards 
of  history  over  malicious  and  irreparable  wrongs! 

Such,  then,  was  the  state  of  affairs  at  Washington 
and  at  Charleston  when  Davis,  a  few  days  after 
his  inauguration,  received  an  appeal  from  the 
Governor  of  South  Carolina  to  assume  control  of 
all  forces  getting  ready  to  open  fire  on  Sumter. 
He  at  once  sent  Beauregard  to  take  command  in 
the  name  of  the  Confederacy  "but  not  to  begin 
the  attack";  for  at  that  very  time  the  Peace  Con 
ference,  assembled  by  request  of  Virginia  to  avert 
a  conflict  between  the  sections,  was  in  session,  and 
prayers  were  going  up  from  South  and  North 
imploring  God  to  bless  its  efforts. 

Lincoln,  on  the  eighth  of  March,  four  days  after 
his  inaugural,  called  the  first  council  of  his  Cabinet 
to  discuss  the  situation  at  Charleston.  On  the 
fifteenth  he  called  them  together  again;  it  appeared 
that  General  Scott,  who  had  privately  advised 
Buchanan  to  reinforce  and  hold  Fort  Sumter,  had 
changed  his  mind  and  now  recommended  that  it  be 
given  up  and  the  "  way  ward  sisters"  be  allowed  to 
go  in  peace,  In  the  face  of  this  serious  turn  of 
affairs,  Lincoln  put  the  question,  "  assuming  it  to 


136  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

be  possible  to  now  provision  Fort  Sumter,  is  it  well 
under  all  the  circumstances  to  attempt  it?"  Chase 
and  Blair  said  "yes"  and  the  latter  emphatically; 
Seward,  Cameron,  Welles,  Smith  and  Bates  said 


"no." 


On  the  twentieth,  Lincoln  sent  Lamon  his  long 
time  friend  and  law  partner,  to  South  Carolina  to 
find  out  just  how  things  stood.  Meanwhile  parleys 
relative  to  supplies,  mails,  etc.,  were  going  on 
between  Anderson,  officers  of  the  War  Department 
and  the  South  Carolina  authorities.  Lamon  reached 
Charleston  on  the  twenty-fifth  and  lost  no  time  in 
seeing  the  Governor.  At  the  interview  he  told  him 
that  Lincoln  had  practically  made  up  his  mind  to 
withdraw  Anderson.  Lamon  escorted  by  Colonel 
Duryea,  one  of  the  Governor's  aides,  then  went  to 
see  Anderson  and  told  him  the  same  story,  which  is 
confirmed  by  the  following  extracts  from  Anderson's 
letters  in  the  first  volume  of  War  Records,  to  the 
Adjutant-General : 

"The  remarks  made  to  me  by  Colonel  Lamon, 
taken  in  connection  with  the  tenor  of  the  newspapers 
here,  induced  me,  as  stated  in  previous  communica 
tions,  to  believe  that  orders  would  soon  be  issued 
for  abandoning  this  work."  In  a  letter  received  in 
Washington  on  the  twenty-ninth:  "Having  been 
in  daily  expectation  since  the  return  of  Colonel 
Lamon  to  Washington  of  receiving  orders  to  vacate 
the  Fort,  I  have  kept  these  laborers  as  long  as  I 


HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY  137 

could "  [They  were  clearing  up  the  cisterns  of  the 
Fort.]  "Mr.  Lamon  left  here  [Charleston]  last 
night  saying  that  Major  Anderson  and  command 
would  soon  be  withdrawn  from  Fort  Sumter  in  a 
satisfactory  manner,"  so  wrote  Beauregard  to  Davis 
on  the  twenty-sixth.  On  the  same  day  Beauregard 
wrote  Anderson: 

"My  dear  Major:  Having  been  informed  that 
Mr.  Lamon,  the  authorized  agent  of  the  President, 
advised  Governor  Pickens,  after  his  interview  with 
you  at  Fort  Sumter  that  yourself  and  command 
would  be  transferred  to  another  port  in  a  few  days;" 
and  then  went  on  to  say  that  he  would  provide 
suitable  conveyances  when  Anderson  was  ready  to 
move. 

Moreover  there  is  unquestionable  testimony  that, 
while  Lamon  was  South,  Seward  had  assured  the 
Commissioners  appointed  by  Davis  that  the  prom 
ises  he  had  made  them  that  Fort  Sumter  would  be 
evacuated  would  be  kept. 

In  the  light  of  these  letters  and  this  testimony, 
was  it  not  natural  in  Beauregard,  Governor  Pickens 
and  Davis  to  believe  that  the  authorities  in  Wash 
ington  were  acting  in  good  faith,  and  that  Anderson 
would  be  withdrawn  and  war,  at  least  for  the 
present,  avoided? 

Meanwhile  what  was  actually  happening  in 
Washington?  Lamon,  of  course,  hastened  on  his 
return  to  see  Lincoln  and  must  have  told  him  all 


138  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

the  Governor  said  and  all  Anderson  had  said,  and 
what  he  in  turn  had  said  to  them.  There  is  no 
evidence  that  Lincoln  then  or  ever  committed  him 
self  to  an  absolute  withdrawal  of  Anderson;  on  the 
other  hand,  there  is  no  evidence  that  he  ever  dis 
claimed  Lamon's  representations  to  the  Governor 
or  to  Anderson.  Seward,  however,  in  an  interview 
with  Judge  Campbell  immediately  after  Lamon's 
return,  declared  that  he  (Lamon)  had  no  agency 
from  him  (Lincoln),  nor  title  to  speak. 

Let  all  these  circumstances,  and  a  fleet  with 
nearly  one  hundred  guns  and  twenty-four  hundred 
men  gathering  at  the  mouth  of  Charleston  harbor, 
speak  for  themselves  as  to  good  faith. 

On  the  twenty-ninth  of  March  Lincoln  assembled 
his  Cabinet  at  noon  and  each  member  submitted 
written  answers  to  a  memorandum  relating  to 
reinforcing  Anderson;  the  Cabinet  was  practically 
unanimously  in  favor  of  it.  Thereupon  Lincoln 
wrote  to  the  Secretary  of  War  and  the  Secretary  of 
the  Navy:  "I  desire  that  an  expedition  to  move  by 
sea  be  got  ready  to  sail  as  early  as  the  sixth  of 
April."  On  the  fourth  of  April  Lincoln,  through 
the  Secretary  of  War,  notified  Anderson  that  he 
would  be  reinforced.  Anderson  acknowledged  that 
letter  on  the  eighth,  saying:  "I  ought  to  have  been 
informed  that  this  expedition  was  to  come;  Colonel 
Lamon  convinced  me  that  the  idea,  merely  hinted 
at  by  Captain  Fox,  would  not  be  carried  out."  Fox 


HIS  LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  139 

had  been  to  see  him  before  Buchanan's  term  ended, 
relative  to  reinforcing  him  by  the  bay. 

This  quick  about-face  of  the  Administration 
must  have  stunned  Lamon. 

On  the  evening  of  April  8,  Robert  S.  Chew,  Chief 
Clerk  of  the  State  Department,  and  in  his  old  age, 
when  I  saw  him,  a  venerable,  admirable  gentleman, 
delivered  in  person  this  message  to  Governor  Pickens : 

"I  am  directed  by  the  President  of  the  United 
States  to  notify  you  to  expect  an  attempt  will  be 
made  to  supply  Fort  Sumter  with  provisions  only, 
and  if  such  attempt  be  not  resisted  no  effort  to 
throw  in  men,  arms,  or  ammunition  will  be  made 
without  further  notice  or  in  case  of  an  attack  upon 
it."  Pickens  called  in  Beauregard  who  was  in 
an  adjoining  room  to  hear  this  message. 

Beauregard  immediately  wrote  Davis:  "An 
authorized  messenger  from  Lincoln  has  just 
informed  Governor  Pickens  and  myself  that  provi 
sions  will  be  sent  to  Fort  Sumter,  peaceably  if  they 
can,  forcibly  if  they  must." 

To  this  Davis  replied:  "If  you  have  no  doubt  of 
the  authorized  character  of  the  agent  [he  was 
evidently  thinking  of  Lamon]  who  communicated 
to  you  the  intentions  of  the  Washington  Government 
to  supply  Fort  Sumter  by  force,  you  will  at  once 
demand  its  evacuation,  and  if  this  be  refused,  pro 
ceed  in  such  manner  as  you  may  determine  to 
reduce  it." 


140  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

Had  Beauregard  sent  Lincoln's  notice  in  full  and 
not  a  paraphrase,  we  have  often  wondered  what 
would  have  been  Davis'  answer?  Would  he  have 
realized  the  significance  of  Lincoln's  adroit  threat 
-if  that  be  the  right  name  for  it  —  and  parried 
it  by  ordering  Beauregard  to  notify  Washington 
that  he  would  supply  Anderson  with  every  possibly 
need  for  the  welfare  and  comfort  of  himself  and  his 
troops,  thus  escaping  the  responsibility  of  firing 
the  first  shot?  I  am  afraid  not;  for  Davis  was  not 
built  on  the  line  of  shrewdness;  but  had  he  done  so, 
Lincoln  could  not  have  said,  as  he  did  in  his  message 
to  Congress  a  few  months  later,  that  he  was  bound 
to  relieve  a  starving  garrison,  knowing  full  well  the 
weight  of  that  word  " starving."  Lincoln  knew  his 
fellow  men  far,  far  better  than  Davis,  and  he  also 
knew  far  better  than  he  how  to  strike  the  tender 
chords  of  their  nature.  He  forced  Davis  to  fire  that 
first  shot,  the  shot  that  struck  the  heart  of  the 
North,  tearing  away  all  the  questions  of  law  and 
expediency  that  were  hampering  its  free  move 
ments. 

Beauregard,  who  was  itching  to  begin  the  attack, 
upon  receipt  of  Davis'  despatch,  sent  a  letter  to 
Anderson  demanding  the  evacuation  of  the  Fort. 
Anderson  in  reply  said  his  sense  of  honor  prevented 
compliance  with  the  demand;  but,  when  handing 
his  letter  to  Beauregard's  aide,  he  remarked  that 
in  a  few  days  he  would  be  starved  out  whether  the 


HIS  LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  141 

Confederate  guns  did  or  did  not  batter  the  Fort  to 
pieces. 

Upon  hearing  this  statement  from  his  aide, 
Beauregard  sent  him  back  to  Anderson  to  ask  when 
he  would  agree  to  give  up  the  Fort.  Anderson 
said:  "At  noon  on  the  fifteenth  if  meanwhile  I  do 
not  receive  controlling  instructions  or  supplies." 
Beauregard  referred  the  matter  to  the  Confederate 
Secretary  of  War,  who,  of  course,  carried  it  at  once 
to  Davis,  who  probably  dictated  the  answer:  "We 
do  not  desire  needlessly  to  bombard  Fort  Sumter," 
that  if  Anderson  would  agree  to  evacuate  he  should 
not  be  fired  upon,  but  in  case  he  refused,  Beauregard 
was  to  use  his  own  judgment.  Beauregard  immedi 
ately  sent  word  to  Anderson  that  he  would  open 
fire  at  4.30  A.M.  the  next  day,  which  he  did,  and 
after  a  day  and  night's  bombardment,  Anderson 
lowered  his  flag.  Davis  in  acknowledging  the 
despatch  from  Beauregard  announcing  the  sur 
render  said:  "If  occasion  offers,  tender  my  friendly 
remembrances  to  Major  Anderson."  They  had 
been  Cadets  together  at  West  Point. 

My  pen  has  dwelt,  and  perhaps  too  long  for  the 
reader's  patience,  on  the  firing  of  Sumter;  but,  as 
Davis  was  officially  responsible  for  the  momentous 
deed,  it  has  seemed  to  me  only  fair  to  him  that  all 
the  circumstances  be  resurrected,  and  stand  once 
more  as  living  witnesses  before  the  bar  of  public 
opinion.  It  has  been  claimed,  and  in  one  sense 


142  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

truly,  that  he  made  a  great  blunder  tactical  an<J 
political,  in  giving  the  first  blow,  a  blow  which  the 
manhood  and  honor  of  the  North  felt  deeply  and 
was  bound  to  resent;  but  over  and  above  all,  incur 
ring  the  moral  responsibility  for  beginning  the  war, 
which  to  this  day  overshadows  him  and  the  South. 
Yet,  in  the  inexorable  march  of  the  world's  progress, 
it  was  ordained  that  from  some  one,  in  his  or  the 
following  generation  at  latest,  a  first  shot  should 
be  fired,  so  intense  was  the  feeling,  so  inevitable 
was  the  struggle  between  the  sections,  from  the 
day  the  bells  tolled  the  funeral  of  John  Brown. 

Upon  the  fall  of  Sumter,  Lincoln  called  for  seventy- 
five  thousand  men,  virtually  declaring  war,  and  we 
think  rightly,  on  the  Confederacy.  This  call  included 
North  Carolina,  Tennessee  and  Virginia,  and  under 
it  the  overstrained  ties  that  bound  them  to  the 
Union  snapped,  and  they  rushed  to  the  defense  of 
their  fellow  Southern  States.  Strangely  enough,  but 
true,  from  that  day  on  to  the  end,  in  every  eye  that 
fell  on  the  banners  they  lifted,  from  the  Potomac 
to  the  Rio  Grande,  they  were  banners,  not  in  defense 
of  slavery,  but  in  resistance  of  an  invasion  of  home; 
While  in  the  eyes  of  the  North,  as  a  whole,  from  the 
coast  of  Maine  to  the  Pacific  they  were  banners  of 
treason  locked  in  the  embrace  of  slavery.  Be  that 
as  it  may,  after  three  years  of  battle  had  elapsed 
I  saw  both  flags,  the  Stars  and  Stripes  and  that  of 
Lee's  army,  flying  for  hours  within  a  few  paces  of 


HIS   LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  143 

each  other  after  the  explosion  of  the  crater  at 
Petersburg;  a  gentle  breeze  would  now  and  then 
waft  them  out  from  their  staffs,  and  to  my  eyes 
they  really  looked  friendly  and  gallant. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

IN  May,  1861,  the  capital  of  the  Confederacy  was 
moved  from  Montgomery.  Although  Montgomery 
is  beautiful,  indeed  charming,  yet  the  transfer  of 
the  capital  of  the  Confederacy  to  Richmond  was 
almost  imperative  in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  first 
and  main  attacks  would  be  from  the  direction  of 
Washington;  the  President  had  to  be  near,  not  only 
for  consultation,  but  to  settle  questions  which 
did  not  admit  of  delay. 

The  change  was  in  every  sense  fortunate  and 
propitious.  A  city  with  finer  good  manners,  freer 
from  cheap  politicians,  or  with  more  stimulating 
and  richer  traditions  could  not  have  been  chosen 
for  a  capital;  there  the  heart  of  the  Old  Dominion 
beat,  whose  arms  in  pre-colonial  times  had  been 
quartered  with  those  of  her  mother,  Great  Britain. 
From  the  very  beginning  of  our  country,  and  espe 
cially  throughout  the  South,  Virginia  enjoyed  a 
position  of  pride  and  reverence  in  the  affections  of 
the  people :  her  sons,  with  Franklin  and  the  Adamses 
of  Massachusetts,  had  been  the  master  workmen 
in  building  the  government  and  directing  its  course; 
at  her  firesides  had  sat  Washington,  Henry, 
Marshall,  Madison,  Jefferson,  the  Lees,  Masons 

144 


HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY  145 

and  Randolphs,  and  in  their  names  Richmond  and 
Virginia  welcomed  the  Confederacy,  staking  all 
as  in  Colonial  days,  on  that  immortal  principle  — 
the  right  of  a  religiously  free  and  intelligent  people 
to  decide  the  kind  of  a  government  that  should 
rule  over  them.  And  now  with  more  than  seventeen 
thousand  soldiers  dead  Richmond  keeps  on  her 
way  with  the  same  good  manners  and  the  same 
graceful,  unconscious  dignity,  holding  dear  the 
memory  of  the  Confederacy  that  made  her  its 
capital  and  the  ashes  of  its  President  now  resting 
on  the  banks  of  the  James  as  it  swings  along  by 
its  last  green  islands  on  its  way  to  the  sea. 

Before  the  removal  from  Montgomery,  one  army 
under  Joseph  E.  Johnston  had  assembled  in  front 
of  Harper's  Ferry  and  one  at  Manassas  under 
Beauregard.  On  the  twenty-first  of  July  the  Battle 
of  Bull  Run  was  fought,  and  Davis,  keyed  with 
anxiety,  left  Richmond  and  arrived  at  Manassas 
Junction  four  or  five  miles  from  where  the  fighting 
was  going  on  at  about  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon. 

The  forenoon  had  gone  badly;  the  station  was 
thronged  with  stragglers  who  crowded  about  the 
train  with  the  usual  fearful  stories  of  defeat.  Davis, 
looking  for  some  one  who  could  give  him  reliable 
information,  espied  a  man  with  a  gray  beard  and  a 
calm  face,  who  told  him  that  their  line  was  broken,  all 
was  confusion,  the  army  routed,  and  the  battle  lost. 

He    finally    reached    Beauregard's    headquarters 


146  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

and,  while  horses  were  being  got  ready,  Beauregard's 
adjutant-general  advised  him  of  the  hazard  he 
took  in  going  to  the  field,  that  as  President  he  ought 
not  to  expose  himself  to  its  dangers.  But  the  spirit 
that  had  carried  him  to  the  front  at  Monterey  and 
Buena  Vista  had  not  grown  timid  with  age,  and  he 
set  out  for  the  guns  that  he  could  faintly  hear. 

They  soon  encountered  shoals  of  stragglers  and 
then  the  limping,  bleeding  wounded.  Davis  says 
that  among  them  was  a  mere  boy  badly  hurt  and 
supported  on  the  shoulder  of  a  man,  who  swung  his 
hat  with  a  cheer  as  he  passed  him.  I  hope  that  little 
gallant  fellow  lived  through  the  war  and  enjoyed 
an  old  age  blessed  with  friends  and  plenty. 

After  a  while,  Davis  fell  in  with  Johnston,  whose 
army  most  opportunely  had  joined  Beauregard, 
and  was  told  that  the  victory  had  been  won, 
though  fitful  firing  from  the  breaking  Union  forces 
was  still  going  on.  By  that  time  the  sun  was  low. 

Davis  then  went  to  the  extreme  left  of  the  Con 
federate  line  and  there  fell  in  with  General  Early, 
whose  forces  were  lying  down  resting  waiting  for 
orders.  Early  told  him  of  near-by  wounded  that 
needed  attention,  especially  a  Colonel  Gordon  of 
the  Eighth  Georgia.  Davis  at  once  looked  up  Gordon 
and  found  him  in  severe  pain  and  one  of  our  Federal 
soldiers,  a  prisoner,  ministering  to,  his  wants.  He 
then  hunted  up  a  surgeon  and,  upon  leaving,  Gordon 
asked  him  to  give  protection  to  the  prisoner  who 


HIS   LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  147 

had  been  so  kind.  Davis  took  the  man's  name  and 
address  and  left  orders  on  his  return  to  headquarters 
that  he  should  not  be  treated  as  a  prisoner  but  be 
released  and  sent  home.  Some  days  after  Davis 
had  returned  to  Richmond,  he  received  a  notice 
from  the  officer  in  charge  of  prisoners  that  there 
was  one  who  claimed  that  he  had  been  promised 
protection  by  the  President  at  Manassas.  Davis 
sent  for  him  and  gave  orders  for  his  release  and 
freedom  to  rejoin  our  lines  at  Fort  Monroe.  The 
man  said  he  had  a  sister  not  far  from  Richmond 
whom  he  would  like  to  visit  before  availing  himself 
of  parole.  Davis  readily  granted  the  request,  and 
the  next  thing  heard  from  him  was  in  a  newspaper 
from  the  North  Jboasting  how  he  had  escaped,  and 
how  he  had  availed  himself  of  the  opportunity 
to  visit  the  " sister"  to  make  sketches  of  the  forti 
fications  around  Richmond!  I  hope  the  good 
angels  in  charge  of  Paradise,  out  of  compassion,  have 
assigned  a  place  to  this  bogus  Samaritan  somewhere 
a  long  way  off  from  Davis  —  away,  away  on  the 
other  side  of  the  Delectable  Mountains  —  for  I  think 
it  would  be  uncomfortable  for  him  to  meet  the  man 
who  had  befriended  him. 

It  was  near  eleven  o'clock  at  night  when  Davis 
joined  Johnston  and  Beauregard  in  an  upper  room 
of  the  headquarters,  not  one  of  them  dreaming  that 
at  that  very  hour  McDowell's  troops  were  fleeing 
through  the  darkness  in  the  wildest  panic. 


148  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

While  Davis  was  at  a  table  writing  a  despatch 
to  Richmond,  Beauregard's  adjutant-general, 
Colonel  Jordan,  came  upstairs,  saying  that  an 
officer  had  just  come  who  declared  he  had  been  as 
far  as  Centreville  in  the  tracks  of  McDowell's 
forces  and  found  the  town  full  of  artillery  that  they 
had  abandoned.  "As  soon  as  I  had  made  my 
report,"  says  Colonel  Jordan,  "Mr.  Davis,  with 
much  animation,  asserted  the  necessity  for  an  urgent 
pursuit.  I  took  my  seat  at  the  same  table  and  wrote 
the  order  for  pursuit  substantially  at  the  dictation 
of  Mr.  Davis. "  This  order,  for  one  reason  or  another, 
was  not  carried  out;  the  responsibility  for  failure 
of  execution  soon  became  a  question  attended 
with  most  serious  results;  some  claiming  after  the 
war  was  over  that  it  was  the  primal  cause  for  the 
defeat  of  the  Confederacy.  Later,  at  the  risk  of 
wearying  the  reader,  we  shall  have  to  go  into  this 
matter  with  detail,  but  for  the  present  it  must  bide 
its  time. 

With  the  break  of  daylight  the  next  morning,  a 
steady  down-pouring,  all-day  rain  began,  and  by 
the  afternoon,  when  Davis  set  out  to  visit  the 
hospitals  in  search  of  a  youth  of  his  own  family 
reported  sinking  slowly,  every  little  run  and  creek 
was  bank  full.  At  last  at  the  approach  of  night  he 
found  the  right  hospital,  and  here  is  what  he  says: 
"It  was  too  late,  the  soul  of  the  young  soldier  had 
just  left  his  body;  the  corpse  lay  before  me.  Around 


HIS   LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  149 

it  were  many  gentle  boys  suffering  in  different 
degrees  from  the  wounds  they  had  received."  One 
of  them  replied  to  his  expressed  sympathy  that  he 
was  glad  to  die  for  such  a  cause,  and  Davis  adds: 
"Many  kindred  spirits  ascended  to  the  Father 
from  that  field  of  glory." 

That  night  he  had  another  conference  over  what 
was  next  to  be  done,  with  Johnston  and  Beauregard 
who  by  that  time  had  gained  a  true  measure  of 
the  victory;  but  both  agreed  they  were  not  strong 
enough  nor  in  condition  to  take  the  offensive. 
That  settled,  Davis  promoted  Beauregard  to  the 
rank  of  General  with  handsome  recognition  of  the 
part  he  had  played  in  the  battle,  and  in  the  morn 
ing  returned  to  Richmond. 

For  weeks  the  South  was  literally  drunk  with 
joy  and  pride  over  the  victory;  bonfires  were  lit, 
bells  were  rung,  guns  fired,  old  grudges  were  for 
gotten  and  men  and  women  embraced  one  another 
when  they  heard  the  news.  But  while  sobering  off, 
facts  of  the  utter  demoralization  and  flight  of 
McDowell's  army  came  filtering  down  through 
newspapers  and  from  letters  sent  home  by  soldiers 
telling  what  they  had  seen  and  found  in  the  track 
of  their  panic-stricken  foes.  Of  course,  from  all 
over  the  South  broke  the  usual  question:  "How  in 
the  world  did  it  happen  that  Johnston,  Beauregard 
and  Davis,  all  three  right  on  the  ground,  did  not  take 
advantage  of  such  a  rout  to  capture  Washington?" 


150  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

Davis  wisely  at  first  paid  no  attention  to  the 
malicious  gossip  that  soon  followed,  and,  with 
the  limited  means  at  hand,  went  on  tackling  the 
distracting  difficulties  of  arming  and  equipping 
new  forces. 

At  this  point  and  now,  a  chapter  which  will  be 
tedious  for  me  to  write,  and  more  tedious  I  fear 
for  the  reader  to  read,  must  be  devoted  to  the 
outcome  of  this  malignant  gossip,  namely,  an 
antagonism  between  Davis,  Johnston  and 
Beauregard  which  arrayed  parties  in  the  South  with 
consequences  fatal,  it  has  been  claimed,  to  the  success 
of  its  cause.  Moreover,  it  is  one  of  the  many  tragic 
parts  in  the  history  of  the  Confederacy;  but  that 
phase  has  no  immediate  interest  for  my  pen,  it  is 
the  hues  of  Davis'  personality  lit  up  by  the  unquench 
able  fires  of  the  controversy. 

Congress,  in  May,  passed  a  bill  creating  the 
regular  Confederate  Army  [it  had  hitherto  been  a 
provisional  one]  providing  for  five  general  officers 
with  the  title  of  General,  and  conferring  the  power 
of  selection  on  the  President.  A  previous  Act  had  a 
provision  that  officers  resigning  from  the  United 
States  Army  should  have  corresponding  rank  in  the 
Confederate  Army. 

Davis,  on  August  31,  appointed  to  rank  as  Generals : 

1.  Samuel  Cooper,  assigned  as  Adjutant-General 
and  Chief  of  Staff, 

2.  Albert  Sydney  Johnston, 


HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY  151 

3.  Robert  E.  Lee, 

4.  Joseph  E.  Johnston, 

5.  P.  T.  Beauregard, 

and  now  trouble  began.  Cooper,  Albert  Sidney 
Johnston,  and  Lee  had  won  no  battles;  and 
the  jealous  friends  of  Joseph  E.  Johnston  and 
Beauregard  were  fiercely  indignant.  "Had  not 
they  won  the  greatest  victory  that  had  ever  been 
won?"  and  lo!  they  were  overslaughed  by  Davis' 
pets.  "Are  the  leaders  of  the  troops  of  the  South 
to  be  chosen  for  merit  and  accomplishments,  or 
for  old-time  friendships  and  capacity  for  adulation ?" 
Johnston,  immediately  on  receiving  the  general 
orders  promulgating  these  appointments,  protested 
that  a  great  injustice  had  been  done  him,  and  was 
obviously  touched  to  the  quick,  as  the  following 
extract  from  his  letter  to  Davis  shows:  "It  reduces 
my  rank  in  the  grade  I  hold.  This  has  never  been 
done  heretofore  in  the  regular  service  but  by 
sentences  of  Court  Martial.  It  seems  to  tarnish 
my  fair  fame  as  a  soldier  and  as  a  man,  earned  by 
more  than  thirty  years  of  laborious  and  perilous 
service."  He  ended  his  letter:  "These  views  and 
the  freedom  with  which  they  are  presented  may  be 
unusual;  so  likewise  is  the  occasion  that  calls  them 
forth."  Davis  allowed  his  temper,  ever  quick  when 
the  integrity  of  his  official  action  was  impugned, 
to  take  the  reins,  and  he  acknowledged  the  receipt 
of  that  letter:  "Its  language  is  as  you  say  'unusual/ 


152  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

its  arguments  and  statements  utterly  one-sided 
and  its  insinuations  as  unfounded  as  they  are 
unbe'coming. " 

It  is  conceded  that  Johnston  had  a  technical 
legal  reason  for  his  contention  under  one  of  the 
Acts  preliminary  to  the  General  Act  of  Congress, 
but  we  will  leave  the  decision  as  to  whether  or  not 
he  was  right  or  wrong  to  minds  better  stored  with 
law  than  mine. 

That  Johnston  was  very  sensitive,  morbidly 
so  it  seems  to  me,  as  to  rank,  is  illustrated  by  a  letter 
written  two  days  after  the  battle  of  Bull  Run  to 
Cooper,  who  had  assigned,  without  consulting  him, 
an  officer  to  his  staff.  "I  had  already, "  says  Johnston, 
" selected  Major  Rhett  for  the  position  in  question, 
and  can  admit  the  power  of  no  officer  of  the  Army 
to  annul  my  order  on  the  subject,  nor  can  I  admit 
the  claim  of  any  officer  to  command  of  the  '  Forces ', 
being  myself  the  ranking  General  of  the  Con 
federate  Army."  Later  he  wrote:  "I  had  the  honor 
to  write  you  on  the  twenty-fourth  on  the  subject 
of  my  rank  compared  with  other  officers  of  the 
Confederate  Army.  Since  then  I  have  received 
daily  orders  purporting  to  come  from  Headquarters 
of  the  Forces.  Such  orders  I  cannot  regard,  because 
they  are  illegal." 

When  Cooper  sent  these  letters  to  Davis  he 
endorsed  them  "  Insubordinate. "  Lincoln  once  told 
Secretary  Welles  that  McClellan  was  afflicted 


HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY  153 

with  the  " slows;"  Davis  might  have  said  that 
Johnston  was  afflicted  with  the  " snarls."  But, 
seriously,  of  all  the  fungus  growths  that  attach 
themselves  to  militarism,  that  of  querulous  fussiness 
about  "rank"  is  the  worst,  and  has  impaired  the 
usefulness  and  blighted  the  old  age  of  many  an 
otherwise  good  soldier.  It  was  the  ruin  of  Benedict 
Arnold. 

Meanwhile,  the  resolute  North,  stung  by  the  defeat 
at  Bull  Run,  was  rushing  troops  to  Washington, 
and  McClellan,  who  had  relieved  McDowell,  under 
the  charm  of  his  matchless  personality,  was  organiz 
ing  them  into  a  formidable  army.  The  Navy,  too 
was  growing  and,  ever  ready  to  undertake  hazardous 
enterprises,  led  an  expedition  against  Fort  Hatteras 
which  it  captured  on  August  29,  and  then  set  sail 
for  Port  Royal,  threatening  Charleston  and 
Savannah. 

The  Southern  public,  alarmed  by  these  disasters, 
asked :  "Why  is  the  Army  of  Johnston  and  Beauregard 
lying  idle?"  Johnston  heard  the  question  at  Fairfax 
Court  House,  and  the  last  of  September  requested 
Davis  to  come  up  for  a  conference  as  to  what  he 
should  do.  On  his  arrival,  Johnston  called  in 
Beauregard  and  G.  W.  Smith,  a  division  commander, 
who,  by  the  way,  a  few  months  later  submitted  to 
them  a  report  which  was  kept  secret  till  the  war 
was  over,  of  what  took  place  at  this  interview. 
Davis  did  not  see  this  report  until  twenty  years  had 


154  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

elapsed  and  it  is  needless  to  say  it  rekindled  for  a 
moment  the  dying-down  fires  in  his  nature. 

In  discussing  the  situation  as  to  future  movements, 
it  was  proposed  by  Smith  to  cross  the  Potomac 
above  Washington  and  force  McClellan  to  come 
out  of  his  works  and  fight  them  on  an  open  field. 
Davis  asked  how  many  men  they  would  need;  Smith 
said  fifty  thousand;  Johnston  and  Beauregard, 
sixty  thousand  seasoned  troops,  that  is  a  reinforce 
ment  of  about  thirty  thousand  strong,  and  suggested 
that  they  be  drawn  from  Norfolk,  West  Virginia, 
and  Pensacola  or  wherever  Davis  could  lay  his 
hands  on  them.  Davis  told  them  it  was  not  possible 
to  detach  from  these  locations,  adding  that  the 
whole  country  was  demanding  protection  and 
praying  for  arms  and  for  defence,  but  that  he  would 
send  all  the  reinforcements  he  could;  and  there 
the  matter  dropped. 

Apropos  of  the  plan  Johnston,  Beauregard  and 
Smith  suggested,  had  they  been  supplied  with 
troops  to  carry  it  out,  it  is  my  belief,  knowing  as  I 
do  McClellan's  Army  of  the  Potomac,  that  they 
would  have  been  thrown  back  as  Lee  was  thrown 
back  in  1862  and  1863;  for  the  fates  had  decided, 
as  the  war  as  it  went  on  showed,  that  no  Confederate 
army  should  stay  long  north  of  the  river  that  flows 
by  Mount  Vernon. 

There  are  side  lights  in  the  background  of  this 
famous  interview  which  help  to  illuminate  it. 


HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY  155 

The  highest  flaming  one  was  the  fact  that  the 
victory  of  Bull  Run,  supplementing  the  surrender 
of  Fort  Sumter  like  a  south  wind  to  a  plum  tree, 
brought  Beauregard  into  a  full  bloom  of  military 
glory;  and  as  the  election  of  a  permanent  President 
was  approaching,  politics  had  begun  her  usual 
game.  Beauregard's  biographer,  a  member  of  his 
staff,  says:  " Gentlemen  of  position  and  influence 
outside  of  the  Army  now  urged  him  to  allow  his 
name  to  be  presented."  Jones,  in  his  " Rebel  War 
Clerk's  Diary  Notes"  says:  "The  battle  of  Manassas 
made  everybody  popular  and  especially  General 
Beauregard.  If  he  were  a  candidate,  I  am  pretty 
sure  he  would  be  elected." 

Davis  had  asked  him  for  his  report  of  the  battle 
early  in  August,  but  up  to  the  time  of  the  interview, 
he  had  not  handed  it  in,  although  when  submitted, 
October  18,  it  appeared  to  have  been  finished  on 
August  26. 

It  is  a  shabby,  a  despicable  thing  for  a  biographer 
to  ascribe  malicious  motives  for  the  conduct  of  his 
hero's  enemies;  and,  so  far  as  I  can,  I  wish  to  avoid 
it;  but  is  it  unreasonable  to  ask,  in  view  of  the 
persistent  criticism  and  innuendoes  of  Davis  by 
Beauregard's  friends  throughout  the  war,  why 
did  he  hold  back  his  report  with  its  indirect,  yet 
damaging,  charges?  And,  may  I  ask,  was  it  strange 
that  Davis  should  feel  hurt  when  he  saw  it?  Beaure 
gard's  biographer  says  it  was  held  back  that  he 


156  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

might  get  the  benefit  of  Northern  accounts  of  the 
battle.  But  however  this  may  be,  the  belated  report 
began  with  a  preliminary  statement  to  the  effect 
that  before  the  battle  of  Bull  Run  he  had  sent  one 
of  his  staff  to  Davis  with  a  plan  for  the  defeat  of 
McDowell's  Army  and  the  capture  of  Washington, 
which  Davis  had  unqualifiedly  disapproved. 

The  charge  of  Davis'  responsibility  for  the  failure 
to  capture  Washington  after  Bull  Run,  that  had 
begun  as  a  whisper,  suddenly  broke  aloud  as  a  fact 
by  a  speech  made  to  Congress  by  one  of  its  members, 
who  had  been  a  volunteer  aide  on  Beauregard's 
staff  at  the  time  of  the  battle.  Davis  could  not 
stand  this  unfair,  baseless  charge  and  had  to  clear 
himself  from  its  damaging  imputation;  for  it  was 
not  only  poisoning  public  opinion,  but  was  also 
undermining  the  administration's  power  to  carry 
on  the  war.  Therefore  on  October  30  he  wrote 
Beauregard:  "  Yesterday  my  attention  was  called 
to  various  newspaper  publications  purporting  to 
have  been  sent  from  Manassas  and  to  be  a  synoposis 
of  your  report,  in  which  it  is  represented  that 
you  had  been  overruled  by  me  in  your  plan  for  a 
battle  with  the  enemy  south  of  the  Potomac  for  the 
capture  of  Baltimore  and  Washington." 

A  few  days  later  he  wrote  Johnston:  " Reports 
have  been  and  are  very  widely  circulated  to  the 
effect  that  I  prevented  General  Beauregard  from 
pursuing  the  enemy  after  the  battle  of  Manassas, 


HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY  157 

and  had  subsequently  restrained  him  from  advancing 
upon  Washington  City.  I  call  upon  you  as  the 
commanding  general  and  as  a  party  to  all  the 
conferences  on  the  twenty-second  and  twenty-third 
of  July,  to  say  whether  or  not  I  obstructed  the 
pursuit  of  the  enemy  after  the  victory  at  Manassas, 
or  have  ever  objected  to  an  advance  or  other  active 
operations  which  it  was  feasible  to  undertake." 

Beauregard  exonerated  him  from  the  charge  of 
the  responsibility  for  not  pursuing  McDowell,  and 
so  did  Johnston  but  in  his  answer  said:  " After 
a  conference  at  Fairfax  Court  House  with  the  three 
senior  general  officers,  you  avowed  it  to  be  impractic 
able  to  give  this  Army  the  strength  which  these 
officers  considered  necessary  to  enable  it  to  assume 
the  offensive,  upon  which  I  drew  back  to  its  present 
position  (Centreville)." 

Here  then  at  last  are  the  leading  circumstances 
of  the  break  of  mutual  confidence  between  Davis, 
Beauregard  and  Johnston.  Sooner  or  later,  as  the 
outcome  of  it  all,  every  politician  that  had  failed 
to  get  an  appointment  in  the  Army  for  himself  or  a 
friend,  every  army  contractor  that  had  been  thwarted 
in  his  greed,  every  Senator,  Congressman,  or  Governor 
that  had  a  grievance,  every  editor  and  reporter 
that  had  been  snubbed  by  any  member  of  the 
Cabinet  —  all  joined  in  the  ranks  behind  the 
champions  of  Johnston  or  Beauregard  as  the  war 
went  on,  attributing  defeat  to  Davis,  and  when  the 


158  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

Confederacy  fell,  laid  its  death  on  his  shoulders. 
A  few  Southern  and  practically  all  Northern  histo 
rians  have  in  a  measure  sustained  this  verdict; 
many  of  the  Northern,  thoroughly  convinced  that 
he  was  bad  in  every  way,  were  only  too  glad  to 
help  load  him  down  with  the  failure  of  the  South. 

Let  me  say  in  conclusion  of  this  prolonged  and 
possibly  wearying  account,  that  I  think  the  pre 
ponderance  of  evidence  is  in  favor  of  Davis  in  this 
controversy  and  that  the  spirit  of  the  dead 
Confederacy  does  not  hold  him  responsible  for  her 
failure,  on  the  contrary,  glories  in  his  constancy  and 
love  of  her. 

But  I  do  think  Davis  made  a  great  mistake  in 
going  to  Manassas.  A  battlefield  is  no  place  for  a 
President,  a  Kaiser,  or  a  King.  They  do  not 
help,  they  only  embarrass  the  Commander.  More 
over,  had  he  stayed  in  Richmond,  Johnston  and 
Beauregard  would  have,  in  all  probability  through 
their  failure  to  pursue  McDowell,  gone  into  a 
perpetual  eclipse,  and  Lee,  Davis'  ever  loyal  helper, 
would  have  come  into  his  own  that  much  sooner. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

THAT  first  year  of  the  Confederacy,  whose  morning 
broke  with  such  glowing  enthusiasm  and  whose  first 
summer  was  so  brightened  for  Davis  and  the  people 
of  the  South  by  the  victory  of  Bull  Run,  had,  never 
theless,  before  its  sun  set,  brought  to  him  and  them 
a  sore  disappointment.  He  had  hoped,  and  they 
were  sure,  that  the  nations  of  the  Old  World  would 
at  once  reach  out  the  hand  of  welcome;  for  was  not 
Cotton  a  king  that  would  throw  the  doors  wide 
open  of  every  country  with  mills  filled  with  looms 
or  spindles.  But  to  his  and  their  surprise  the  Con 
federate  ambassadors  who  had  been  received  with 
warmly  gracious  formalities,  soon  discovered  an 
hesitation,  if  not  a  latent  unwillingness,  to  acknowl 
edge  the  independence  of  the  South.  Day  after 
day  and  week  after  week  they  plead  for  recognition; 
to  this  end  they  held  out  tempting  commercial 
advantages,  they  appealed  to  the  Englishman's 
hereditary  notion  of  the  right  to  be  free,  they  used 
every  argument,  but  all  fell  on  deaf  ears  and  they 
soon  realized,  what  they  had  not  surmised,  that 
Vice-President  Stephens,  in  declaring  that  the 
cornerstone  of  the  Confederacy  was  slavery,  had 
dealt  a  blow  which  aroused  a  sentiment  more  power 
ful  than  King  Cotton. 

159 


160  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

It  is  one  of  the  curious  episodes  of  history  that 
that  little,  pale,  pathetic-looking  man  who  had 
opposed  secession,  and  in  his  heart  worshipped  the 
old  Union,  raised  a  ghost  that  could  not  be  laid 
and  that  dragged  the  Confederacy  down  to  its 
grave. 

In  the  autumn  the  seizure  of  the  Confederate  am 
bassadors,  Slidell  and  Mason,  from  the  deck  of  the 
British  steamer  Trent,  by  that  "I'll  show  you," 
spare-faced  old  Commodore,  Wilkes,  for  a  moment 
raised  the  hopes  of  the  South;  but  Seward  with  his 
cool  adroitness  released  them  from  Fort  Warren, 
delivered  them  to  an  English  man-of-war,  and  thus 
blew  out  that  hope  like  a  candle.  Although  dis 
appointed,  the  South  did  not  despair  of  England 
coming  at  last  to  her  aid,  for  she  was  bound  to 
realize  that,  if  victorious,  the  North  in  due  time 
would  be  her  inveterate  rival  on  the  seas.  Cotton 
was  still  an  illusion,  as  well  as  that  other  fatal 
illusion,  that  the  North  lacked  courage  and  would 
not  fight  long.  This  last  illusion  Davis  did  not 
share  with  his  southern  countrymen;  from  the  very 
first  he  knew  the  indomitable  resolution  of  the 
North,  and  all  that  autumn  never  relaxed  a  moment 
in  preparation  for  the  coming  spring's  campaigns. 

In  September  his  first  Secretary  of  War,  Walker, 
who  had  had  no  experience  that  aided  him  in  his 
trying  difficulties  and  immense  labors,  for  the  sake 
of  health  of  body  and  peace  of  mind,  resigned  his 


: 


HIS  LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  161 

position.  He  wrote  Davis  this  letter:  "In  with 
drawing  from  your  Cabinet  I  can,  I  feel  assured, 
without  any  impeachment  of  my  motives,  say  to 
you  in  writing  what  I  have  often  said  of  you;  that 
you  were  the  only  man  I  had  ever  met  whose  great 
ness  grew  upon  me  the  nearer  I  approached  him, 
and  whose  rare  fidelity  to  principle  often  wounded 
when  he  most  preferred  to  oblige."  Walker's 
friends  said  that  he  was  a  brave,  impulsive  man 
and  this  letter  shows  it. 

Davis  appointed  Benjamin  in  Walker's  place, 
and  before  the  year  ended  he  had  snubbed  the 
Senate  and  made  a  host  of  enemies  in  and  out  of 
the  Army.  For,  born  with  a  contempt  for  military 
self-importance,  and  wearing  that  air,  which  success 
ful  Jews  so  often  wear,  of  marching  to  the  music  of  a 
triumph,  his  face  always  wreathed  in  smiling  con 
descension  and  with  manners  invariably  formal,  did 
not  inspire  or  encourage  intimacy.  And  yet  he  was 
universally  credited  by  friend  and  foe  with  natural 
and  developed  abilities  far  surpassing  any  one  in 
Congress  or  the  Cabinet,  and  thus  this  marked 
personality,  together  with  the  fact  that  he  was  a 
Hebrew,  made  him  the  target  of  violent  anti- 
administration  newspaper  attacks.  But  between 
him  and  Davis  there  never  was  a  break  of  friendship 
or  confidence. 

Only  those  who  have  had  experience  in  staff 
departments  can  know  or  conceive  the  work  that 


162  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

Benjamin  and  Davis  had  to  do  that  first  year  of 
the  war  in  organizing,  providing  supplies  for  the 
army  they  were  creating,  and  the  innumerable  per 
plexing  questions  from  contractors,  manufacturers, 
and  governors  of  States  that  poured  in  by  every 
mail  and  by  telegraph  almost  every  hour.  To  plan 
and  to  answer  those  questions  they  had  to  work  all 
day  and  long  into  the  late  hours  of  every  night,  but 
the  next  morning  Benjamin  greeted  the  public  with 
the  same  alert  smile  and  lofty  manner,  and  Davis 
with  the  same  dignified  courtesy  and  air  of  uncon 
querable  will. 

Toombs,  restless  in  his  position  of  Secretary  of 
State  and  longing  for  the  field  of  action  as  soon  as 
the  guns  opened  at  Bull  Run,  resigned  and  Davis 
appointed  Hunter  of  Virginia  in  his  place.  Nature 
had  built  Toombs  on  a  large  scale  mentally  and 
physically.  He  was  over  six  feet  in  height,  had 
depth  and  force  of  character.  His  eyes  were  large, 
black  and  flashing,  he  dressed  well  and  kept  his 
small,  delicate  hands  with  the  care  of  a  woman. 
He  loved  stimulating,  joyous,  good-hearted  com 
pany,  as  well  as  that,  from  time  to  time,  unfortun 
ately,  of  the  cup.  His  temper  was  quick  but  his 
judgment,  when  evoked  by  serious  questions,  calm 
and  sure.  Before  the  year  ended  he  had  joined 
Wise,  Floyd,  Clingman,  Cobb,  and  other  civilians 
craving  for  military  glory  in  dislike  of  Davis  who 
had  appointed  West  Point  men  over  and  ahead  cf 


HIS   LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  163 

them.  At  one  of  the  early  steps  we  took  in  this 
biography,  we  referred  to  this  very  attendant  dis 
advantage  of  a  West  Point  education. 

Poor  Clingman !  One  of  the  most  disappointed,  one 
of  Davis'  earliest,  most  persistent  and  virulent  critics, 
I  never  think  of  without  pity.  While  in  the  Senate 
he  had  had  his  portrait  painted  as  addressing  that 
body,  and  Corcoran,  the  Washington  banker  and 
famous  art  critic,  had  hung  it  in  his  gallery  among 
presidents,  senators,  judges  and  generals.  After 
the  war  was  long  over,  Clingman  in  old  age  and 
utter  poverty,  his  coat  shiny  and  threadbare,  his 
hair  white,  long  was  in  the  habit  of  going  to  the 
gallery  and  gazing  on  his  portrait.  One  day,  to  his 
surprise,  the  portrait  had  been  moved  and  he  asked 
a  stranger.  "Why  do  you  suppose  they  placed  it 
here  in  this  dark  room?"  "Oh,  it  is  probably  just  a 
temporary  change."  " I  do  hope  it  is,"  he  murmured, 
his  lips  trembling  and  the  tears  springing  out  of 
his  eyes.  Oh,  that  look  back  upon  other  days! 

It  will  be  remembered  that  Davis  had  assigned 
his  boyhood  and  West  Point  friend,  Albert  Sydney 
Johnston,  to  the  command  of  the  Department  of 
the  West.  Its  frontier  extended  from  the  Allegheny 
Mountains  to  the  western  boundary  of  Arkansas. 
It  was  a  long  line  pierced  by  the  Mississippi,  the 
Cumberland  and  the  Tennessee,  each  offering  the 
aid  of  iron-clad  gunboats  to  forces  making  an 
attack.  In  front  of  Johnston  was  his  old  West  Point 


164  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

roommate  Anderson  of  Sumter,  Grant,  Thomas  and 
Sherman  with  stronger  forces  than  he  had  and 
much  better  armed  —  indeed  many  of  his  soldiers 
had  only  converted  rifles  and  shotguns.  Conscious 
of  this  inferiority  and  realizing  its  dangers  he  had 
repeatedly  called  for  better  arms  and  equipment. 
The  War  Department  had  told  him  the  truth  — 
that  none  were  to  be  had.  This  he  could  not  make 
public  and  had  to  lie  idle,  knowing  full  well  that  an 
idle  army,  not  only  breeds  contagious  diseases, 
unnerves  morale,  and  weakens  confidence  in  its 
commander,  but  it  breeds  distrust  in  that  mighty 
shape  called  public  opinion.  He  was  troubled  and 
worried  day  and  night,  but  he  found  no  fault  with 
Davis,  for  he  was  sure  his  boyhood  friend  thought 
of  him  and  would  do  all  he  could  to  enable  him  to 
take  the  offensive. 

Meanwhile,  although  McClellan's  immense  army 
lay  idle,  yet  such  was  the  charm  of  his  personality 
together  with  his  well  staged,  frequent  reviews, 
it  neither  suffered  from  disease  nor  distrust,  its 
rank  and  file  waiting  in  perfect  confidence  that  he 
would  in  his  own  good  time  lead  them  to  victory. 

But  the  cool-headed  North  had  no  illusions  as 
to  him  nor  to  chance;  all  day  and  all  night  its  looms, 
its  foundries,  its  ammunition-  and  gun-making 
establishments  and  its  powder  mills  were  busy. 
And  so  were  its  numerous  shipyards.  Through  the 
dead  hours  of  the  night  they  clanged  with  the 


HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY  165 

riveting  of  boilers  for  men-of-war,  forging  plates 
for  iron-clad  gunboats  and  for  the  turret  of  the 
little  Monitor  dreaming  with  a  smile  of  its  coming 
battle  with  the  huge  Merrimac.  Moreover  an 
expedition  of  land  and  sea  forces  had  sailed  to  attack 
Roanoke  Island;  another  under  Farragut  was 
about  to  sail  for  the  capture  of  New  Orleans,  and 
Grant  was  waiting  for  Halleck's  authority  to  fall 
on  Johnston's  line. 

Such  then  was  the  situation  and  the  prospect  that 
lay  before  Davis  at  the  end  of  the  first  year.  There 
can  be  no  doubt  that  he  was  conscious  he  had  made 
enemies,  of  the  loss  and  weakness  that  came  to  him 
through  the  abandonment  of  his  Cabinet  by  one 
of  the  most  powerful  leaders  of  the  South,  of  the 
mighty  dangers  that  hung  over  its  armies.  Yet, 
and  notwithstanding,  his  courage  faltered  not.  The 
spirit  of  the  youthful-browed  and  aspiring  Con 
federacy,  that  spirit  that  inspired  poetry,  built 
monuments,  brought  tears  of  affection,  was  at  his 
side,  for  she  knew  right  well  that  within  his  breast 
were  a  will  and  devotion  that  would  never  quail, 
and  that  would  carry  her  banner  on  many  a  vic 
torious  field  and  would  never  forsake  her. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

DAVIS'  second  year  had  barely  begun  when  a 
storm  of  defeat  set  in  that  swept  the  entire  northern 
frontier  of  the  South.  On  January  19  that  loyal 
Virginian,  Thomas,  who  looked  like,  and  by  nature 
was  more  like,  Washington  than  any  other  man  of 
his  day,  broke  Albert  Sydney  Johnston's  line  at 
Mill  Springs,  Eastern  Kentucky.  Grant,  on  Feb 
ruary  6,  broke  it  at  Fort  Henry  on  the  Tennessee, 
and  ten  days  after,  at  Fort  Donelson  on  the  Cumber 
land,  capturing  both  garrisons,  many  guns  and 
prisoners;  Curtis  broke  it  on  March  5  at  Elkhorn, 
amid  the  wild  turkey-roamed  and  white  oak- 
covered  hills  of  Southwestern  Missouri.  Meanwhile 
Burnside  had  captured  Roanoke  Island  just  below 
the  Virginia  line  on  the  coast  of  North  Carolina. 
Some  years  after  the  war  Benjamin  in  a  letter  to 
Colonel  Charles  Marshall,  Lee's  confidential  aide, 
said  in  reference  to  the  fall  of  Roanoke  Island  and 
the  loss  of  Fort  Donelson,  for  which  the  Confederate 
Congress  by  the  report  of  a  Committee  found  him 
responsible:  "I  consulted  the  President  [Davis] 
whether  or  not  it  was  best  for  the  country  that  I 
should  reveal  to  a  Congressional  Committee  our 
poverty  and  my  utter  inability  to  supply  the  requisi- 

166 


HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY  167 

tions  of  Wise  [in  command  of  Roanoke  Island]  and 
thus  run  the  risk  that  the  fact  should  become  known 
to  some  of  the  spies  of  the  enemy,  of  whose  acti 
vities  we  were  well  assured.  It  was  thought  best 
for  the  public  interest  that  I  should  submit  to 


censure." 


The  weakness  and  final  rupture  of  Johnston's 
lines  were  in  a  great  measure  due  to  the  lack  of  arms 
and  ammunition  —  a  fact  that  neither  he  nor  Davis 
could  let  the  world  know. 

These  were  all  bad  blows  and  the  effect  on  the 
public  mind  was  staggering.  But  the  one  that 
struck  nearest  the  heart  was  the  fall  of  Donelson 
on  the  sixteenth  of  February.  The  news  of  this 
supreme  disaster  reached  Richmond  while  the 
workmen  were  engaged  in  building  a  platform  in 
front  of  Clark's  celebrated  equestrian  statue  of 
Washington,  for  the  inauguration  of  Davis  on  the 
twenty-second  as  permanent  President  of  the  Con 
federacy.  To  add  to  the  gloom  of  the  forenoon  of 
the  twenty-second,  a  day  that  had  been  looked 
forward  to  as  a  day  of  sunlight,  pomp  and  pride 
and  for  which  great  preparations  had  been  made, 
the  clouds  that  had  gathered  in  the  night  and  been 
hanging  gray  and  lowering  began  to  rain.  Davis 
read  his  inaugural  to  an  uncomfortable,  cast-down 
audience  under  dripping  umbrellas.  In  the  course 
of  his  address  he  said:  "At  the  darkest  hour  of  your 
struggle  the  provisional  gives  place  to  the  permanent 


168  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

government.  After  a  series  of  successes  and  victories 
which  covered  our  arms  with  glory  we  have  recently 
met  with  serious  disasters.  But  in  the  heart  of  a 
people  resolved  to  be  free,  these  disasters  tend 
but  to  stimulate  to  increased  resistance."  With 
uplifted  hands  and  face,  he  closed  as  follows:  "My 
hope  is  reverently  fixed  on  Him  whose  favor  is 
ever  vouchsafed  to  the  cause  which  is  just.  With 
humble  gratitude  and  adoration,  acknowledging 
the  Providence  which  has  so  visibly  protected  the 
Confederacy  during  its  brief  but  eventful  career, 
to  Thee,  0  God,  I  trustingly  commit  myself,  and 
prayerfully  invoke  Thy  blessing  on  my  country 
and  its  cause."  I  have  never  stood  where  he  stood 
that  rain-pouring  day  and  looked  up  without  a 
strange  feeling  coming  over  me;  for  Washington's 
drawn  sword  is  pointed  directly  toward  Appomattox 
and  his  horse,  with  nervous  pointed  ears  and  staring 
eyes,  is  looking  full  in  the  same  direction  as  if  filled 
with  prophetic  terror. 

Donelson  having  fallen  opening  the  way  to 
Nashville  and  Northern  Alabama,  Johnston  had  to 
draw  back  his  lines,  abandon  Kentucky  and  give 
up  Nashville  itself,  where  stores  had  been  gathered 
and  industries  for  the  manufacture  of  supplies 
gotten  under  way.  This  turn  of  affairs  was  so 
sudden,  unexpected,  and  mortifying  that  all  of 
Middle  and  Western  Tennessee  and  the  people  of 
Kentucky,  who  had  thrown  their  future  with  the 


HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY  169 

South,  broke  into  fury;  their  Senators  and  Congress 
men  marched  in  a  body  to  see  Davis  and  poured  out 
their  boiling  indignation  over  Johnston's  manage 
ment,  demanding  that  he  give  them  a  General. 

Davis  listened  to  them  with  a  pained  heart;  he 
could  not  tell  them  why  Johnston  had  not  had 
men  enough  to  hold  his  line,  or  why  Wise  had  not 
been  able  to  hold  Roanoke  Island,  but  said  that 
if  Johnston  was  not  a  General  he  did  not  know 
where  to  find  one.  This  was  little  comfort  in  the 
interview  with  Davis  for  the  Congressional  dele 
gation;  and  we  have  no  doubt  that  that  night  he 
and  his  Administration  were  criticised  most  severely 
in  Richmond's  taverns,  lobbies  of  hotels,  clubs, 
and  newspaper  offices. 

Davis  wrote  Johnston  a  long  letter:  "My  dear 
General:  We  have  suffered  great  anxiety  because 
of  recent  events  in  Kentucky  and  Tennessee,  and 
I  have  been  not  a  little  disturbed  by  the  repetition 
of  reflections  on  yourself.  In  the  meantime  I  have 
made  you  such  defense  as  friendship  prompted 
and  many  years  of  aquaintance  justified."  It  then 
went  on  to  say  that  he  was  in  need  of  facts  to  rebut 
the  wholesale  condemnation  not  only  of  Johnston 
but  also  of  the  administration  itself,  and  that 
the  adverse  comment  meanwhile  was  undermining 
public  reliance. 

"I  respect  the  generosity  which  has  kept  you 


170  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

silent,  but  would  impress  upon  you  that  the  question 
is  not  personal  but  public  in  its  nature,  that  you 
and  I  might  be  content  to  suffer,  but  neither  of  us 
can  willingly  permit  detriment  to  the  country. 

With  the  confidence  and  regard  of  many  years, 
I  am  truly  your  friend, 

JEFFERSON  DAVIS" 

To  this  Johnston  replied:  "I  anticipated  all 
that  you  have  told  me  as  to  the  censure  that  the 
fall  of  Donelson  drew  upon  me  and  the  attacks  to 
which  you  might  be  subjected;"  and  then  goes 
on  to  give  the  facts  before  and  after  its  fall,  ending 
feelingly  his  long  letter  thus:  "The  test  of  merit 
in  my  profession,  with  the  people,  is  success.  It 
is  a  hard  rule,  but  I  think  it  is  right.  Your  friend, 

A.  S.  JOHNSTON." 

Davis  wrote  back:  "My  dear  General:  Yours 
of  the  sixteenth  is  just  received.  I  have  read  it 
with  much  satisfaction.  So  far  as  the  past  is  con 
cerned,  it  but  confirms  the  conclusions  at  which  I 
had  already  arrived.  My  confidence  in  you  has 
never  wavered.  I  hope  the  public  will  soon  give 
me  credit  for  my  judgment  [he  had  approved  plans 
by  Johnston  for  attack  on  Grant]  rather  than  to 
arraign  me  for  obstinacy.  May  God  bless  you  is 
the  sincere  prayer  of  your  friend, 

JEFFERSON  DAVIS." 


HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY  171 

Johnston's  plans  were  the  assembling  of  an 
army  at  Corinth  and  falling  on  Grant  before  Buell 
could  join  him.  The  battle  of  Shiloh  took  place 
on  Sunday,  April  6,  and  just  as  Johnston  had  broken 
the  center  arch  of  Grant's  line  and  victory  was  in 
his  grasp,  a  chance  musket  ball  cut  his  femoral 
artery  and  with  the  loss  of  blood  he  was  lifted  from 
his  horse  and  had  hardly  touched  the  ground  when 
he  drew  his  last  breath. 

Beauregard  succeeded  Johnston,  and  the  weight 
of  the  testimony  seems  to  be  that  he  threw  away 
the  victory.  "One  more  lunge  and  Grant  was  gone. 
One  more  hour  for  Johnston  in  the  saddle,"  said  a 
Confederate  General,  "and  the  Confederate  States 
would,  in  all  probability,  have  taken  their  place 
at  the  Council  Board  of  the  Nations  of  the  Earth." 

Davis  in  a  message  to  Congress  two  days  after 
Johnston's  death  said:  "Without  doing  injustice  to 
the  living  it  may  be  safely  asserted  that  our  loss  is 
irreparable;  and  among  the  shining  hosts  of  the 
great  and  good  who  now  cluster  around  the  banner 
of  our  country,  there  waits  no  purer  spirit,  no  more 
heroic  soul  than  that  of  the  illustrious  man  whose 
death  I  join  you  in  lamenting.  He  rode  on  to  the 
accomplishment  of  his  object  forgetful  of  self, 
while  his  very  life  blood  was  fast  ebbing  away. 
His  last  breath  cheered  his  comrades  to  victory. 
The  last  sound  he  heard  was  their  shout  of  triumph. 
His  last  thought  was  his  country's,  and  long  and 


172  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

deeply  will  his  country  mourn  his  loss."  Oh,  the 
friendships  of  boyhood!  And  one  of  the  charms  in 
Davis  for  me  is  that  they  stayed  green  until  he  died. 

Johnston's  body  was  taken  to  New  Orleans  and 
had  barely  reached  there  when  the  city  fell  under 
the  indomitable  Southern-born  Farragut,  closing 
the  door  of  recognition  of  the  Confederacy  by  that 
most  brilliant  and  most  incomprehensible  of  all 
nations  —  France. 

Meanwhile  McClellan,  under  the  pressure  of 
public  opinion  which  Grant's  exploits  in  the  West 
had  stirred  up  demanding  movement  on  his  part, 
in  March  transferred  his  Army  from  in  front  of 
Washington  to  in  front  of  Yorktown;  Joseph  E. 
Johnston,  his  very  like  opponent  in  some  ways, 
was  holding  him  there,  the  peach  trees  in  bloom 
and  the  red-winged  blackbirds  warbling  along  their 
fortifying  lines. 

In  the  midst  of  all  this  disappointment,  anxiety, 
and  labor,  Davis  received  a  confidential  letter 
from  a  friend,  Honorable  W.  M.  Brooks  of  Macon, 
Alabama,  telling  him  of  the  adverse  criticism  going 
on  as  to  himself  and  his  administration.  Davis 
in  reply  said:  "I  acknowledge  the  error  of  my 
attempt  to  defend  all  of  the  frontier,  sea-coast  and 
inland,  but  will  say  in  justification  that  if  we  had 
received  the  arms  and  munitions  which  we  had  good 
reason  to  expect,  the  attempt  would  have  been 
successful  and  the  battlefields  would  have  been 


HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY  173 

on    the    enemy's    soil.     Without    military    stores, 
without   workshops   to   create   them,    without   the 
power  to  import  them,  necessity,  not  choice,  has 
compelled    us    to    occupy    strong    positions.     The 
country  has  supposed  our  armies  more  numerous 
than  they  are  and  our  munitions  more  extensive 
than  they  have  been.    I  have  borne  reproach  in 
silence  because  to  reply  by  an  exact  statement  of. 
facts   would    have    exposed    our   weakness.     Your 
estimate  of  me  I  hope  assured  you  that  I  would 
not,  as  stated,  treat  the  Secretary  of  War  'as  a  mere 
clerk,'  and  if  you  knew  Mr.  Benjamin  you  would 
realize  the  impossibility  of  his  submitting  to  degrada 
tion  at  the  hands  of  any  one  .  .  .     Against  the 
unfounded  story  that  I  keep  the  Generals  in  leading 
strings  may  be  set  the  frequent  complaints  that  I 
do  not  arraign  them  for  what  is  regarded  as  their 
failures  or  misdeeds,   and  do  not  respond  to  the 
popular   clamor  by   displacing   Commanders   upon 
irresponsible   statements.     You    cite   the    cases    of 
Johnston  and  Beauregard,  but  you  have  the  story 
nomine  mutata,  and  though  Johnston  was  offended 
because   of  his  relative  rank,   he   certainly   never 
thought  of  resigning,  and  General  Beauregard  in  a 
portion    of    his    report,    which    I    understand    the 
Congress  refused  to  publish,  made  a  statement  for 
which  I  asked  his  authority,  but  it  is  surely  a  slander 
on  him   to   say   that   he   ever   considered   himself 
insulted  by  me. 


174  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

If,  as  you  inform  me,  it  is  credibly  said  that  I  have 
scarcely  a  friend  and  not  a  defender  in  Congress  or 
the  Army,  yet  for  the  sake  of  the  country  and  its 
cause,  I  must  hope  it  is  falsely  said. "  As  to  appoint 
ments  in  the  Army,  he  closed  this  long  and  what 
must  have  been  to  him  a  painful  letter:  "I  have 
endeavored  to  avoid  bad  selections  by  relying  on 
military  rather  than  on  political  recommendations. " 

Mr.  Lincoln  did  not  follow  this  course;  in  appoint 
ing  Generals  he  was  much  wiser.  What  if  they 
should  lose  a  few  battles?  Was  it  not  better  to 
have  them  fighting  the  " rebels"  than  fighting  his 
Administration?  And  were  they  not  much  less 
harmful  strutting  around  with  feathers  in  their 
hats  and  big  spurs  on  their  heels  than  haranguing 
conventions  and  inflaming  the  press  against  him? 
Davis  never  knew  how  to  play  the  political  game; 
Nature  had  not  built  him  that  way.  From  his 
youth  up  and  on  to  the  end  he  faced  his  fellow-men 
with  the  same  look  of  dignified  respect  and  sincerity 
without  a  suggestion  of  premeditated  caution. 

At  last  McClellan  got  his  Army  within  hearing 
of  the  church  bells  of  Richmond,  and  Davis,  realizing 
that  a  crisis  was  at  hand,  recalled  Lee  from 
Charleston,  and  when  Johnston  was  wounded  at 
Seven  Pines,  put  him  in  supreme  command. 

Then,  as  with  a  magic  hand,  the  clouds  that 
hung  over  Davis  and  over  Richmond,  were  swept 
away.  McClelland  star,  that  had  blazed,  entered 


HIS   LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  175 

and  Lee's  star  emerged,  from  a  mist.  Those  seven 
days'  battles,  beginning  among  the  timbered  swamps 
of  the  Chickahominy  and  ending  on  Malvern  Hill 
overlooking  the  James,  were  hard-fought  and  the 
losses  were  great.  Davis  could  not  keep  away 
from  them  and  Lee  had  to  caution  him  not  to  expose 
himself. 

Here  let  me  pay  a  tribute  to  the  steadfast,  heroic 
old  Army  of  the  Potomac  with  whose  colors  I  served. 
Never  did  an  army  show  more  courage  than  she 
in  defending  the  lines  of  Games'  Mill  or  the  fields  of 
Glendale  and  Malvern  Hill  on  retreat!  My  heart 
beats  with  pride  as  I  recall  the  conduct  of  my 
instructor  Alexander  S.  Webb  and  my  fellow  cadet 
friends  at  West  Point,  Randol,  Kirby,  Gushing, 
"Nick"  Bo  wen,  Custer,  and  many  others.  Sweet, 
sweet  are  your  memories,  oh  gallant  friends  of  my 
youth. 

My  sense  of  the  path  a  biography  should  follow 
warns  me  not  to  yield  to  the  witcheries  of  battle 
fields;  but  there  is  one  event  connected  with 
Stonewall  Jackson  that  I  heard  from  the  lips  of  my 
friend  E.  Porter  Alexander,  which  can  be  found  in 
his  most  interesting  book,  "The  Memories  of  a 
Confederate  Staff  Officer,"  and  one  about  Lincoln 
which  can  be  found  in  McDowell's  report  of  his 
countermanded  movement  from  Fredericksburg  to 
join  McClellan  just  before  Lee's  attack,  that  I 
cannot  resist: 


176  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

McClellan's  right  having  been  smashed  in,  he 
first  withdrew  across  the  Chickahominy  and  then 
White  Oak  Swamp  and  there  stood  at  bay  while 
his  vast  trains  made  their  way  to  the  James.  Lee 
set  out  in  pursuit,  but  when  Jackson  reached  White 
Oak  Swamp,  he  sat  down;  it  was  Sunday  and  he 
made  little  or  no  attempt  to  cross.  Hampton,  after 
making  an  examination  of  the  swamp  and  finding  an 
easy  and  feasible  way  to  cross  it  and  attack,  sought 
Jackson  and  found  him  sitting  alone  on  a  fallen 
pine  tree  and  told  him  what  he  had  discovered,  but 
Jackson,  probably  praying,  only  pulled  his  cap 
lower  over  his  closed  eyes  and  said  nothing.  Alexander 
attributed  his  idleness  to  his  desire  to  keep  holy 
the  Sabbath  day.  Owing  to  his  after  brilliant 
exploits,  Lee  nor  Davis  ever  found  fault  with  him, 
although  it  is  generally  conceded  that  had  he  shown 
the  vigor  which  had  characterized  his  movements 
in  the  Valley,  McClellan's  Army  could  not  have 
escaped  destruction.  That  Davis  and  Lee  were 
both  disappointed  in  Jackson  and  had  exchanged 
frank  views  of  his  failure,  is  indicated  by  the  follow 
ing  extract  from  a  letter  Lee  wrote  to  Davis  October 
2,  after  Antietam:  "My  opinion  of  the  merits 
of  Jackson  has  been  greatly  enhanced  during  this 
expedition.  He  is  true,  honest,  and  brave,  and  has 
a  single  eye  to  the  good  of  the  service  and  spares 
no  exertion  to  accomplish  his  object." 

The  other  incident  is  this:    McDowell's  order  to 


HIS   LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  177 

move  from  Fredericksburg  with  some  twenty-five 
thousand  men  and  join  McClellan,  reached  him  on 
a  Sunday  morning.  Now  it  so  happened  that 
Lincoln  was  on  a  visit  to  him  and  thought  he  had 
better  not  set  out,  as  God  would  probably  be  on  the 
side  of  him  who  kept  the  day  holy. 

Here  are  the  two  characters,  Lincoln  and  Stonewall 
Jackson,  very,  very  unlike,  as  unlike  as  the  violet 
evoking  south  wind  of  an  April  morning  is  to 
the  shivering  cold  blast  of  a  winter  day  —  both 
under  the  swaying  awe  of  the  same  mystery!  Surely 
there  are  depths  in  human  nature  where  traits 
linger  that  we  little  dream  of,  yet  when  revealed 
how  potent,  how  intrinsically  interesting,  and  how 
they  live  on,  at  least  with  me,  let  immortal  deeds 
and  sayings  overshadow  them  as  they  may. 

One  or  two  more  things  before  we  leave  the  battle 
fields  around  Richmond.  Mrs.  Davis  had  gone  to 
Raleigh,  North  Carolina,  with  the  children,  and 
here  are  a  few  extracts  from  letters  Davis  wrote  her: 

"You  will  have  seen  a  notice  of  the  destruction 
of  our  home.  If  our  cause  succeeds,  we  shall  not 
mourn  over  our  personal  deprivations;  if  it  should 
not,  why  'the  deluge'.  I  hope  we  shall  be  able  to 
provide  for  the  comfort  of  the  old  negroes." 

"I  packed  some  valuable  books,  and  the  sword  I 
wore  for  many  years  together  with  the  pistols  used 
at  Monterey  and  Buena  Vista.  These  articles  will  have 


178  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

a  value  to  the  boys  in  after  time,  and  to  you  now." 
When  he  heard  that  the  youngest  child  was  at 
the  point  of  death  he  wrote:  "My  heart  sank  within 
me  at  the  news  of  the  suffering  of  my  angel  baby. 
Your  telegram  gives  assurance  of  the  subsidence 
of  the  disease.  But  the  look  of  pain  and  exhaustion, 
the  gentle  complaint  'I  am  tired'  which  has  for  so 
many  years  oppressed  me  seems  to  have  been 
revived,  and  unless  God  spares  me  another  such 
trial,  what  is  to  become  of  me,  I  don't  know. " 

One  thing  more:  Of  course  McClellan  had  to 
abandon  thousands  of  his  sick  and  wounded,  and 
a  surgeon  who  had  remained  in  charge  of  them 
wrote  to  Lee  telling  him  of  their  wants  and  sufferings. 
Lee  at  once  wrote  as  follows:  "I  regret  to  hear 
of  the  extreme  suffering  of  the  sick  and  wounded 
Federal  prisoners  who  have  fallen  into  our  hands. 
I  will  do  all  that  lies  in  my  power  to  alleviate  their 
sufferings.  I  will  have  steps  taken  to  give  you  every 
facility  in  transporting  them  to  Savage  Station. 
I  am  willing  to  release  the  sick  and  wounded  on 
parole,  not  to  bear  arms  until  regularly  exchanged." 
That  letter  was  written  on  the  fourth  of  July, 
a  worthy  celebration  of  the  day,  and  it  is  a  deed 
like  that  which  accounts  for  the  Nation's  pride  in 
Lee.  And  now,  in  contrast  to  that  despatch, 
Beauregard  in  that  same  year  sent  to  his  friend 
Miles  in  the  Confederate  Congress:  "Has  bill  for 
execution  of  abolition  prisoners  after  January  1 


HIS   LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  179 

been  passed?  Do  it  and  England  will  be  stirred 
into  action.  It  is  high  time  to  proclaim  the  black 
flag  for  that  period.  Let  the  execution  be  with  the 
garrote. 

P.  T.  BEAUREGARD." 

What  a  dispatch!  When  this  life  is  over  it  may 
be  that  we  pass  through  a  blessed  stream  which 
washes  away  all  desire  for  cruelty  and  vengeance, 
at  least  I  hope  so 

Lee  next  attacked  Pope,  who  was  marching  an 
army  southward  through  Culpeper.  Pope  was  a 
handsome  man  and  at  heart  kindly,  but  after  an 
interview  with  Stanton,  who  despised  McClellan 
and  was  most  bitter  toward  the  South,  he  issued 
manifestoes  provoking  the  Army  under  McClellan 
and  authorizing  severe  treatment  of  non-combatants 
of  the  territory  he  was  operating  in.  Complaints  of 
atrocities  poured  in  to  Davis,  and  he  wrote  to  Lee 
that  he  was  issuing  an  order  denying  the  customary 
treatment  of  exchange  of  prisoners  of  war  to  Pope 
and  his  officers,  saying:  "For  the  present  we  renounce 
our  right  of  retaliation  on  the  innocent  and  shall 
continue  to  treat  the  private  enlisted  soldiers  of 
General  Pope's  army  as  prisoners  of  war/'  and  that 
if  any  hostages  in  the  hands  of  Pope  should  be 
executed,  a  like  number  drawn  from  commissioned 
officers  would  meet  the  same  fate.  "  While  these 
facts,"  he  concluded,  " would  justify  our  refusal 


180  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

to  execute  the  generous  cartel  by  which  we  have 
consented  to  liberate  an  excess  of  thousands  of 
prisoners  held  by  us  beyond  the  number  held  by 
the  enemy,  a  sacred  regard  for  plighted  faith  shrinks 
from  the  mere  semblance  of  breaking  a  promise 
and  prevents  any  resort  to  this  extremity.  Nor 
do  we  desire  to  extend  to  any  other  forces  of  the 
enemy  the  punishment  merited  alone  by  General 
Pope  and  such  commissioned  officers  as  chose  to 
participate  in  the  execution  of  his  infamous  orders. " 

If  we  bear  in  mind  the  natural  and  inevitable 
feeling  of  hate  that  was  bound  to  follow  in  the 
territory  invaded,  and  the  heartless  destruction  of 
property  and  the  outrageous  crimes  committed  by 
stragglers,  it  is  easy  to  see  how  Davis  was  driven 
by  public  opinion  to  promulgate  the  orders  he  did. 
Nevertheless,  they  accomplished  little  or  no  good; 
in  fact,  they  only  gave  the  North  an  excuse  for  not 
carrying  out  the  cartel,  thereby  prolonging  the 
duration  of  imprisonment  with  its  increasing  low 
spirits  and  accompanying  fatal  diseases.  The  saddest 
part  of  it  all  was  that  the  truly  brave  had  to  suffer 
for  the  conduct  of  the  cowardly  stragglers. 

About  this  time,  too,  a  Federal  officer  in  Missouri, 
where  a  most  savage  state  of  partisan  murder 
reigned,  took  nine  Confederate  prisoners  and  shot 
them,  so  it  was  charged,  in  violation  of  the  laws  of 
war.  Newspapers  called  for  revenge,  and  it  was 
proposed  in  Davis'  Cabinet  that  a  like  number 


HIS   LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  181 

should  be  drawn  from  Libby  Prison  in  Richmond  and 
executed.  Davis  said:  "No,  I  have  not  the  heart 
to  take  innocent  soldiers,  taken  in  honorable  war, 
and  hang  them  like  convicted  criminals."  This, 
and  like  repeated  examples  of  Davis'  freedom  from 
vindictiveness,  the  hardest-faced  of  all  human 
frailties,  will  appeal,  I  know,  to  the  reader's  brave 
heart. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  Pope  met  with  a  most 
disastrous,  overwhelming  defeat;  that  Lee  invaded 
Maryland  and  that  Lincoln  begged  McClellan  to 
resume  command  of  his  old  Army  of  the  Potomac, 
and  that  at  Antietam  he  fought  a  desperate  battle 
with  Lee,  forcing  him  to  withdraw  into  Virginia. 
That  most  sanguinary  of  battles,  on  the  rolling 
fields  that  cradle  the  winding  Antietam  Creek,  in 
one  way  has  been  made  more  famous  than  any  other 
field  of  the  war;  in  this,  that  Lincoln,  in  the  silence 
of  meditation,  had  promised  himself  that  if  victory 
should  come  after  all  of  Pope's  disheartening  defeats, 
he  would  issue  an  Emancipation  Proclamation. 
The  same  spirit  of  religious  awe  that  was  with  him 
at  Fredericksburg,  when  he  suggested  to  McDowell 
that  the  holy  day  be  kept,  was  with  him  still; 
indeed,  from  his  youth  up  he  passed,  as  the  world 
well  knows,  many  an  hour  on  that  border  land  where 
melancholy  and  mystery  make  their  home.  He 
doubted  the  constitutionality  of  the  act;  he  was 
not  sure  that  as  a  war  measure  it  would  prove 


182  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

effective;  he  was  ready,  as  his  letter  to  Greely  shows, 
to  continue  slavery  if  that  would  save  the  Union, 
but  with  the  guns  of  Antietam,  he  was  on  that 
borderland  of  mystery  and  heard  the  voices  of  the 
ages. 

On  Davis,  and  the  South  generally,  the  Emancipa 
tion  Proclamation  had  no  effect;  with  him  and  with 
the  Army  it  only  welded  them  into  closer  union 
and  substituted  the  defense  of  home  and  the  right 
to  be  free  for  mere  political  doctrine  and  vainglory. 
Moreover,  whatsoever  its  increase  of  menace  to 
the  domestic  life  of  the  South  and  moral  advantage 
to  the  cause  of  the  North,  all  was  more  than  counter 
balanced  by  the  almost  simultaneous  speech  of 
Gladstone  at  Newcastle,  in  which  he  said:  "We 
know  quite  well  that  the  people  of  the  Northern 
States  have  not  yet  drunk  of  the  cup  —  they  are 
still  trying  to  hold  it  far  from  their  lips  —  which 
all  the  rest  of  the  world  see  they,  nevertheless, 
must  drink  of.  We  may  have  our  own  opinions 
about  slavery;  we  may  be  for  or  against  the 
South;  but  there  is  no  doubt  that  Jefferson  Davis, 
and  other  leaders  of  the  South,  have  made  an 
army;  they  are  making,  it  appears,  a  navy;  and 
they  have  made  what  is  more  than  either  —  they 
have  made  a  nation. " 

We  all  know  how  that  great  man  repented  of  this 
speech,  but  little  can  we  fully  realize  what  joy  it 
was  to  the  South:  they  saw  England  reaching  out 


HIS   LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  183 

her  hand  and  peace  blessing  their  land  and  homes. 
To  add  to  the  fervor  of  their  hopes,  in  December, 
Burnside  who  had  supplanted  that  disappointing 
child  of  fortune,  McClellan,  attacked  Lee  at 
Fredericksburg,  met  with  a  most  bloody  repulse 
and  was  saved  from  destruction  by  a  kindly  fog, 
underneath  whose  gray  folds  the  poor  old  bleeding 
Army  of  the  Potomac  regained  the  hills  of  Stafford 
on  the  north  side  of  the  Rappahannock. 

Davis  at  the  time,  anxious  about  affairs  in  the 
Southwest,  had  gone  thither  to  get  information  at 
first  hand  from  the  officers  commanding  the  Armies 
and  from  the  people  at  home,  and  above  all,  to 
show  them  that  their  interests  and  welfare  were  in 
his  mind  as  well  as  that  of  Virginia  and  the  East. 

While  on  this  trip  he  addressed  the  Legislature  of 
Mississippi,  in  the  course  of  which  he  said  relative 
to  provisions  for  the  support  of  families  in  poor 
circumstances:  "Let  the  provisions  be  made  for 
the  objects  of  his  affection  and  his  solicitude,  and 
the  soldier  engaged  in  fighting  the  battles  of  his 
country  will  no  longer  be  disturbed  in  his  slumbers 
by  dreams  of  an  unprotected  and  neglected  family 
at  home.  Let  him  know  that  Mississippi  has  spread 
her  protecting  mantle  over  those  he  loves  and  he 
will  be  ready  to  fight  your  battles,  to  protect  your 
honor,  and  in  your  cause  to  die." 

The  battle  of  Fredericksburg  was  fought  on  the 
fifteenth  of  December  and  gave  Davis  a  happy 


184  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

Christmas,  but  it  was  the  last  happy  one  in  the 
life  of  the  Confederacy  and  I  think  for  him,  too; 
for  on  New  Year's  day,  General  Bragg  was  defeated 
at  Stone  River,  Tennessee,  by  the  valiant  troops 
whose  fathers  were  the  pioneers  of  the  West  and 
who  had  all  the  courage  and  intrepid  initiative  of 
the  South. 

In  connection  with  this  battle  there  is  a  cir 
cumstance  that  may  be  worth  mentioning,  showing, 
as  it  does,  the  sudden  turn  of  the  wheel  of  fortune 
for  Davis  and  the  South.  When  the  first  day  was 
over  there  came  a  despatch  from  Bragg  to  him 
claiming  a  great  victory,  and  two  days  after  came 
another  —  a  story  of  defeat.  The  same  thing 
happened  at  Shiloh,  at  Chickamauga,  and  at 
Gettysburg.  These  abrupt  changes  of  the  tide 
must  have  been  trying,  but  Davis,  as  a  boy,  had 
read  "  Pilgrim's  Progress,"  and  as  these  victories 
turned  to  defeat,  we  have  little  doubt  that  like 
Great  Heart  he  bore  on  toward,  what  to  him,  was, 
the  House  Beautiful  and  the  bells  that  were  ringing 
in  the  Celestial  City  to  welcome  the  Pilgrim  at 
last  —  the  independence  of  the  Confederacy. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

IT  is  with  some  feeling  that  we  enter  upon  the 
events  in  Davis'  life  that  marked  the  third  year  of 
his  administration;  for  that  year  we  met  the  Army 
of  Northern  Virginia  at  Chancellorsville  and  at 
Gettysburg  —  I  can  hear  the  guns  to  this  day  - 
and  many  warm  friends  of  my  cadet  days,  some  in 
blue  and  some  in  gray,  were  killed  in  these  battles; 
and  it  is  with  tenderness,  too,  I  recall  the  dead 
bodies  of  the  gallant  Confederates  that  strewed  the 
field  of  Gettysburg. 

It  was  in  early  May.  The  azaleas,  the  violets  and 
the  dogwood  were  in  bloom,  when  we  fought  the 
battle  of  Chancellorsville.  Never  was  that  old  Army 
of  the  Potomac  worse  led  or  worse  handled;  and 
never,  too,  did  Lee  show  more  audacity  or  brilliant 
generalship.  The  world,  however,  has  forgotten 
Hooker's  failures  and  Lee's  successes,  and  only 
remembers  Chancellorsville  as  the  last  battlefield 
of  Stonewall  Jackson.  Twilight  had  just  given  way 
to  darkness;  a  full  moon  was  just  clearing  the  tree- 
tops  when  he  fell  from  the  fire  of  his  own  men.  He 
lived  for  a  few  days  —  till  the  eleventh  —  and  then, 
as  Death  laid  his  cold  hand  on  him,  he  murmured, 

185 


186  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

"Let  us  pass  over  the  river  and  rest  in  the  shade  of 
the  trees." 

Our  old  Army  retreated  back  to  the  hills  of 
Stafford.  On  the  day  of  StonewalFs  funeral  the 
Confederate  bands  played  a  dirge  at  retreat;  our 
bands  heard  them  and  played  a  responsive  dirge. 
I  never  think  of  that  chivalrous  rejoinder  without 
a  flush  of  soldier  pride. 

On   the  death   of   Stonewall,  Davis  wrote   Lee: 

"A  great  calamity  has  befallen  us,  and  I  sympathize 
with  the  sorrow  you  feel  and  the  embarrassment 
you  must  experience.  The  announcement  of  the 
death  of  General  Jackson  followed  frequent  assur 
ances  that  he  was  doing  well.  And  though  the  loss 
was  one  which  would  be  deeply  felt  under  any 
circumstances,  the  shock  was  increased  by  its 
suddenness. 

There  is  sincere  mourning  here  and  it  will  extend 
throughout  the  land  as  the  intelligence  is  received. 
Your  friend, 

JEFFERSON  DAVIS." 

Lee  wrote  to  Jeb  Stuart  the  day  after  Jackson's 
death:  "I  regret  to  inform  you  that  the  great  and 
good  Jackson  is  no  more.  He  died  yesterday,  May 
10,  at  3.15  p.m.,  of  pneumonia  —  calm,  serene  and 
happy.  May  his  spirit  pervade  our  whole  army. 
Our  country  will  then  be  secure."  No,  no,  General 


HIS   LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY  187 

Lee;  Jackson  could  not  have  saved  your  Confed 
eracy.  He  would  have  won  you  new  victories, 
doubtless,  but  the  North  with  its  vast  resources 
was  sure  to  win  the  final  battlefield. 

Meanwhile,  on  the  seventh,  Lee  wrote  to  Davis: 
"  There  are  many  things  about  which  I  would  like 
to  consult  your  Excellency,  [Lee  never  broke 
through  formality  with  Davis  or  any  other  living 
being.]  and  I  should  be  delighted,  if  your  health 
and  convenience  suited,  if  you  could  visit  the  army. 
[Davis  was  far  from  well  all  that  summer.]  "I  learn 
today  that  the  remaining  eye  of  the  President  is 
failing  .  .  .  is  in  a  very  feeble  and  nervous  condition, 
and  he  is  really  threatened  with  the  loss  of  sight 
altogether/'  -  Rebel  War  Clerk  Jones,  in  his  Diary.] 

General  Lee  went  on  to  say:  "I  could  get  you  a 
comfortable  room  in  the  vicinity  of  my  headquarters, 
and  I  know  you  would  be  content  with  our  camp  fare. 
Hoping  that  your  health  is  entirely  restored,  and 
that  you  will  be  attended  with  every  success  and 
happiness." 

On  the  twentieth  Lee  wrote  to  Davis:  "I  cannot 
express  the  concern  I  feel  at  leaving  you  in  such 
feeble  health,  [He  had  just  been  to  Jackson's 
funeral.]  with  so  many  anxious  thoughts  for  the 
welfare  of  the  whole  Confederacy  weighing  upon 
your  mind.  I  pray  that  a  kind  Providence  will  give 
you  strength  to  bear  the  weight  of  care." 

The  anxious  thought  that  was  weighing  on  Davis' 


188  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

mind  was  the  fate  of  Vicksburg;  at  that  very  hour 
Grant  was  crossing  the  Big  Black,  driving  Pemberton 
into  and  encircling  his  works.  Meanwhile  Joseph  E. 
Johnston,  who  had  been  sent  to  relieve  Pemberton 
and  extract  him,  if  possible,  from  ruin,  was  sending 
vague  and  discouraging  messages  to  Davis. 

Johnston  may  have  been — what  many  of  his  friends 
estimated  him  to  be  —  a  great  soldier;  acquaintances 
of  mine,  who  knew  him  intimately,  were  fond  of 
him;  but  if  there  be  in  all  his  military  correspondence 
a  line  or  a  word  breathing  confidence  and  hope  I 
have  failed  to  see  it.  Perhaps  Davis  did  not  have 
patience  enough  with  him,  but  Lincoln  had  to  relieve 
McClellan  at  last;  and  for  the  same  reasons  that 
Davis  had  to  relieve  Johnston  —  the  failure  to 
accomplish  results. 

On  the  thirty-first  of  May,  1863,  Davis,  in  a  long 
letter  to  Lee  about  troubles  in  Mississippi,  North 
Carolina  and  Tennessee,  and  threatening  movements 
on  Richmond  from  the  line  of  the  York  and  the  James, 
said:  " General  Johnston  did  not,  as  you  thought 
advisable,  attack  Grant  promptly,  [He  was  then 
investing  Vicksburg.]  and  I  fear  the  result  is  that 
which  you  anticipated,  if  time  be  given.  ...  It  is 
useless  to  look  back,  and  it  would  be  unkind  to 
annoy  you,  in  the  midst  of  your  many  cares,  with 
the  reflections  which  I  have  not  been  able  to  avoid. " 
Here  we  have  a  trait  in  Davis;  he  never  throughout 
his  life  burdened  his  friends  with  his  trials;  no  one 


HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY  189 

had  keener  feelings,  no  one  appreciated  sympathy 
more,  but  complaint  or  indirect  plea  for  sympathy 
never  passed  his  lips;  he  shouldered  his  troubles 
and  bore  on  in  brave  silence.  That  he  was  now 
encompassed  day  and  night  with  care,  a  survey  of 
the  situation  most  clearly  discloses.  Pemberton, 
besieged  by  Grant;  Banks  moving  with  a  heavy 
force  to  lay  a  like  siege  around  Port  Hudson,  thereby 
cutting  the  Confederacy  in  two;  Bragg  confronted 
by  an  army  which,  if  successful,  meant  leaving  all 
of  Tennessee,  Northern  Alabama,  and  about  all  of 
Mississippi  open  to  subjugation;  and  the  people  of 
those  States,  realizing  the  danger,  imploring  help 
by  telegraph  and  every  mail. 

He  laid  the  matter  before  Lee;  could  he  hold 
Hooker  with  a  part,  and  go  with  the  rest  of  his 
army,  assume  command,  defeat  Rosecrans  and  thus 
compel  Grant  to  give  up  his  hold  on  Vicksburg? 
Lee  with  superb  loyalty  left  that  to  Davis  to  decide; 
he  would  go,  but  did  not  hesitate  to  say  that  he 
feared  that  lack  of  whole-hearted  support,  that  lack 
of  fellow-enthusiasm  which  common  experiences 
alone  give  and  which  weld  the  different  corps  of  an 
army  together.  On  the  other  hand,  if  he  should 
seriously  threaten  Washington,  would  he  not  as 
effectively  relieve  the  situation  in  the  West,  and  in 
case  he  should  gain  another  victory  over  the  Army 
of  the  Potomac,  as  at  Chancellorsville,  would  not 
England  and  France  recognize  the  Confederacy? 


190  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

That  Lee's  heart  was  set  on  this  move,  there  can  be 
little  or  no  doubt. 

Davis  called  his  Cabinet  together  and  told  them 
Lee's  proposed  campaign  across  the  Potomac. 
Reagan,  the  Postmaster-General,  whose  home  was 
in  Texas  and  who  fully  realized  the  dangers  of  the 
Southwest,  opposed  it,  urging  that  he  should  go 
with  a  part  of  his  army  to  the  help  of  Bragg.  All 
the  rest  of  the  Cabinet  was  against  him.  More  letters 
and  despatches  pouring  in  begging  Davis  to  send 
reinforcements  to  Pemberton,  he  called  his  Cabinet 
together  again.  "It  was  Saturday,"  says  Reagan 
in  his  " Memoirs."  "We  went  early  and  remained 
in  session  until  after  dark  in  the  evening."  It  was 
decided  that  Lee  should  cross  the  Potomac.  Reagan 
went  home  cast  down  and  records:  "I  could  get  no 
relief  by  talking  to  my  wife;  remained  restless  till 
probably  midnight  before  going  to  bed  and  did  not 
go  to  sleep  that  night.  I  got  up  before  daylight  and 
wrote  a  note  to  the  President,  telling  him,  in  sub 
stance  that  I  felt  so  strongly  that  we  had  made  a 
great  mistake,  and  asking  him  to  again  convene  the 
Cabinet  and  reconsider  the  question."  Davis 
granted  his  request,  but  the  decision  was  not  reversed, 
and  Lee  set  off  for  Gettysburg.  The  world  knows 
what  happened.  He  was  not  only  defeated  but, 
while  his  army  was  withdrawing  on  the  fourth  of 
July  from  what  was  in  one  sense  the  field  of  their 
glory,  Pemberton  was  surrendering  Vicksburg  to 


HIS   LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  191 

Grant,  and  Bragg  was  melting  away  before  Rosecrans. 
And  fate  set  her  loom  in  motion  to  weave  the  shroud 
of  the  Confederacy. 

And  how  did  Davis  take  these  two  mighty  dis 
asters?  As  his  biographer,  I  would  disdain  to  paint, 
if  I  could,  the  agony  they  gave  him;  if  I  gain  him  a 
single  friend  it  must  not  be  through  pity.  Let  it 
suffice  that  his  heart  bled,  but  did  not  break;  and 
if  I  may  venture  on  further  familiarity  with  the 
reader,  it  was  that  kind  of  courage,  going  hand  in 
hand  with  tenderness  and  refinement,  that  cheers 
on  this  pen.  Naturally  enough  these  two  terrific 
disasters  were  most  depressing  upon  the  public. 
Every  enemy  that  Davis  had,  opened  fire  on  him 
and  his  administration,  using  Johnston  and  Beaure- 
gard  as  their  barricades.  If  any  one  wishes  to  see 
with  what  venom  these  attacks  were  made,  let  him 
turn  to  the  Charleston  Mercury,  the  Richmond 
Examiner  and  Pollard's  "  Secret  History  of  the 
Confederacy."  Little  did  these  editors  dream  of 
the  use  to  which  their  contemptuous  editorials 
would  be  put  by  vindictive  Northern  historians  to 
gratify  their  execration  of  Davis  and  the  South 
for  the  war. 

Even  Lee  was  not  wholly  spared;  suffering  from 
their  innuendoes,  after  Gettysburg,  on  August  8, 
he  asked  Davis  to  accept  his  resignation  and  appoint 
some  one  else  to  take  his  place,  stating,  what  Albert 
Sydney  Johnston  had  said  when  under  like  criticism, 


192  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

that,  for  any  general  commanding  an  army,  it  was 
absolutely  essential  not  only  to  have  the  confidence 
of  his  troops,  but  the  confidence  of  the  public  also, 
and  that  with  the  public  the  only  test  of  fitness  to 
command  was  success.  Lee  closed  his  letter  as 
follows : 

"To  your  Excellency  I  am  especially  indebted  for 
uniform  kindness  and  consideration.  You  have 
done  everything  in  your  power  to  aid  me  in  the 
work  committed  to  my  charge,  without  omitting 
anything  to  promote  the  general  welfare.  I  pray 
that  your  efforts  may  at  length  be  crowned  with 
success,  and  that  you  may  long  live  to  enjoy  the 
thanks  of  a  grateful  people. 

With  sentiments  of  great  esteem,  I  am 
Very  respectfully  and  truly  yours, 

ROBERT  LEE." 

To  this  letter  Davis  replied:  "I  admit  the  pro 
priety  of  your  conclusions,  that  an  officer  who  loses 
the  confidence  of  his  troops  should  have  his  position 
changed,  whatever  his  ability;  but  when  I  read  the 
sentence,  I  was  not  at  all  prepared  for  the  application 
you  were  about  to  make.  Expressions  of  discontent 
in  the  public  journals  furnish  but  little  evidence  of 
the  sentiment  of  an  army.  I  wish  it  were  otherwise, 
even  although  all  the  abuse  of  myself  should  be 
accepted  as  the  result  of  honest  observation. 

Were  you   capable  of  stooping  to  it,  you  could 


HIS  LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  193 

easily  surround  yourself  with  those  who  would  fill 
the  Press  with  your  laudations  and  seek  to  exalt 
you  for  what  you  have  not  done,  rather  than  detract 
from  the  achievements  which  will  make  you  and 
your  Army  the  subject  of  history  for  generations  to 
come.  .  .  . 

But  suppose,  my  dear  friend,  that  I  were  to 
admit  with  all  their  implications,  the  points  which 
you  present,  where  am  I  to  find  that  new  commander 
who  is  to  possess  the  greater  ability  which  you 
believe  to  be  required?  I  do  not  doubt  the  readiness 
with  which  you  would  give  way  to  one  who  could 
accomplish  all  that  you  have  wished,  and  you  will 
do  me  the  justice  to  believe  that,  if  Providence 
should  kindly  offer  such  a  person  for  our  use,  I 
should  not  hesitate  to  avail  myself  of  his  services. 

My  sight  is  not  sufficiently  penetrating  to  dis 
cover  such  hidden  merit,  if  it  exists.  ...  To  ask 
me  to  substitute  you  by  some  one  in  my  judgment 
more  fit  to  command,  or  who  would  possess  more 
of  the  confidence  of  the  Army,  or  of  reflecting  men 
in  the  country,  is  to  demand  an  impossibility. 

It  only  remains  for  me  to  hope  that  you  will 
take  all  possible  care  of  yourself,  that  your  health 
and  strength  may  be  entirely  restored,  and  that  the 
Lord  will  preserve  you  for  the  important  duties 
devolved  upon  you  in  the  struggle  of  our  suffering 
country  for  the  independence  of  which  we  have 
engaged  in  war  to  maintain." 


194  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

Was  there  ever  a  day  in  the  Confederacy's  life 
so  momentous  for  it,  or  one  in  the  life  of  Lee  and 
Davis  so  momentous  for  them?  Where  would  the 
star  of  Lee  ride  today  had  Davis  yielded  to  his 
request,  prompted  by  the  subdued  yet  widespread 
disaffection,  and  substituted  Johnston  or  Beauregard, 
whose  friends  thought  they  were  his  equal?  Would 
Lee  be  in  the  country's  Hall  of  Fame?  Would  the 
star  of  Davis  be  clearing  the  clouds  that  have  been 
hanging  over  him  so  long?  We  think  not;  and 
history  would  have  lost  a  precious  page,  one  of 
those  pages  in  which  poetry  and  glory  live. 

It  is  only  fair  to  Davis  to  repeat  what  Lee  had 
said:  "I  am  especially  indebted  for  uniform  kindness 
and  consideration.  You  have  done  everything  in 
your  power  to  aid  me  in  the  work  committed  to 
my  charge,  without  omitting  anything  to  promote 
the  general  welfare."  If  any  two  men  showed 
mutual  respect  and  singleness  of  purpose  and  recog 
nition  of  ability,  Davis  and  Lee,  from  the  beginning 
to  the  end,  maintained  that  relation  to  each  other. 

In  no  two  men  of  their  day,  or  ever  in  any  day, 
did  the  roots  of  convictions  strike  deeper,  or  with 
wills  more  indomitable  to  maintain  them,  than  in 
Davis  and  Lee.  Both,  by  barriers  inborn,  were 
isolated  more  or  less  from  their  fellow  men;  each 
met  them,  however,  with  the  same  urbanity;  neither 
ever  thought  of  gaining  their  good  will  or  popularity 
by  any  affectations  of  cordiality.  But  there  was 


HIS   LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  195 

this  marked  difference  between  them:  Davis,  how 
ever  apparently  cold  and  austere  he  might  be 
officially,  when  he  mingled  with  old  friends  was  as 
warm  and  free  as  a  boy;  while  as  for  Lee,  he  had 
the  respect,  the  admiration  of  every  one  in  official 
and  private  life,  but,  so  far  as  I  can  learn,  no  one  ever 
lived  who  claimed  to  be  on  close  or  intimate  terms 
with  him. 

A  single  incident  told  me  by  Babcock  of  Grant's 
staff  and  friend  of  mine,  may  not  be  uninteresting. 
At  Appomattox,  while  the  terms  of  surrender  were 
being  copied,  Seth  Williams,  the  Adjutant-General 
of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  and  of  whom  it  has 
been  said,  so  dearly  was  he  loved,  "had  a  harp  in 
his  breast,"  went  up  to  Lee.  He  had  been  his 
adjutant  at  West  Point  when  he  was  superintendent. 
Lee's  face,  for  a  moment,  beamed  with  old-time 
friendship,  but  immediately  resumed  an  air  of  not 
inviting  familiarity  or  any  revival  of  old  relations, 
and  Williams  withdrew.  In  Lee's  behalf  it  must  be 
said  it  was  a  trying  place  and  day  for  him. 

Lee  was  born  for  high  levels,  approaching,  if  not 
fulfilling,  the  ideals  of  his  countrymen,  North  and 
South.  That  Davis  commanded  his  loyalty  and 
respect,  up  to  the  very  last,  is  a  fact  which  this  pen 
throws  into  the  balance  against  the  charges  of  his 
enemies,  let  it  count  for  what  it  may.  Here  is  what 
Lee  said,  after  the  war,  when  asked  by  a  lady  his 
opinion  of  Davis:  "If  my  opinion  is  worth  anything 


196  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

you  can  always  say  that  few  people  could  have 
done  better  than  Mr.  Davis.  I  knew  of  none  who 
could  have  done  so  well."  And  Lee  had  a  chance  to 
weigh  the  abilities  of  every  prominent  man  in  the 
public  life  of  the  South. 

That  year,  1863,  —  a  year  of  high  combing  waves 
of  disasters  —  closed  with  the  crushing  defeat  of 
Bragg  at  Chattanooga/  and  in  the  recesses  of  the 
heart  of  every  reflecting  Southerner  the  fate  of  the 
Confederacy  was  sealed.  But  as  a  rule  he  kept  it 
to  himself  and  manifested  no  willingness  to  abandon 
the  cause  and  accept  subjugation;  ready  to  fight  on, 
be  the  odds  what  they  might  and  the  result  as 
humiliating  and  disastrous  as  overwhelming  defeat 
could  make  it.  That  spirit  in  Davis  was  the  color- 
bearer  and  never  quailed;  the  trumpet  for  him  and 
for  Lee  and  the  self-respecting  was  the  principle 
involved,  a  principle  —  we  venture  to  prophesy  — 
which  will  be  the  rallying  ground  for  the  people  of  the 
United  States  when  the  rights  under  the  Constitu 
tion  are  all  in  the  constricting  folds  of  the  Lernsean 
Hydra  of  complete  centralization. 

The  bells  that  rang  out  the  old  and  rang  in  the 
new  were  in  one  sense  glad  bells,  for  although  they 
marked  the  end  of  a  year  of  sore,  heart-breaking 
troubles,  our  natures  have  a  way  of  comforting  us 
with  the  thought,  "Well,  thank  God,  that  year  is, 
at  last  over!"  Oh,  blessed,  youthful,  cheery-faced 
Hope,  what  a  friend  you  are  to  us  all! 


CHAPTER  XX 

OF  all  the  years  in  our  country's  life,  hardly  one 
compares  in  vital  interest  and  historic  significance 
with  1864.  Throughout  the  South  from  stormy- 
Cape  Hatteras  light  to  the  wilds  of  Texas,  through 
out  the  North  from  Cape  Ann  with  her  twin  Thacher 
Island  lights  to  the  Pacific,  there  was  a  vague  con 
sciousness  in  every  home  of  coming  portentous 
events;  one  or  the  other  section  must  go  down 
before  the  year  ended. 

That  vague  consciousness  was  not  confined  to 
our  country  alone.  England  and  France,  the  entire 
Old  World,  were  on  their  feudal  watch  towers,  so  to 
speak,  gazing  across  the  Atlantic  in  cold,  unsym 
pathetic  wonder  as  to  which  —  North  or  South  - 
would  be  victorious.  And  when  we  think  of  the 
grandsons  of  those  who  wore  the  gray  and  those 
who  wore  the  blue  moving  side  by  side  gallantly 
under  the  Stars  and  Stripes  to  save  that  Old  World's 
civilization,  there  is  a  momentary  rekindling  in  the 
fagots  of  the  ashes  of  old  fires  as  we  recall  the  con 
descending  attitude  toward  us  in  1864.  England, 
it  was  our  inheritance  of  your  laws  and  the  inspiring 
glory  of  your  literature  in  our  common  language 
that  drove  us  to  your  side  on  the  fields  of  France. 

197 


198  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

The  outlook  for  the  Confederacy  was  bad  when 
1864  threw  her  New  Year  doors  open;  and  must 
have  driven  sleep  away  from  Davis  till  a  late  hour 
on  many  a  night.    The  finances  were  in  collapse; 
the  blockade  was  growing  more  and  more  effectual; 
the  supply  of  medicine  for  the  sick  and  wounded  in 
the  field  and  for  the  prisoners  in  the  camps  almost 
exhausted;  the  North  vigorously  enforcing  its  procla 
mations  declaring  medicines  of  all  kinds  contraband ; 
the  gathering  of  food  and  supplies  for  the  army 
more  and  more  difficult  through  the  breaking  down 
of  the  railroads;  in  certain  quarters  of  Georgia  and 
North  Carolina  unmistakable  signs  of  revolt  against 
orders  and  decrees  for  the  conscription  of  men  and 
supplies.    And,  above  all,  opposition  to  the  adminis 
tration,  led  on  by  several  leading  newspapers,  growing 
daily  more  personal  and  malignant,  distracting  the 
public  attention,  enfeebling  the  heartbeat  of  resolu 
tion  and  beclouding  the  future. 

To  add  to  his  trials,  Bragg' s  crushing  defeat  was 
followed  not  only  by  charges  against  him  of  incom- 
petency,  ill-temper  and  bad  manners,  but,  what  was 
worse  for  the  morale  of  the  Army,  his  corps  and 
division  commanders  fell  out  among  themselves 
and  began  accusing  each  other  of  misconduct  and 
failure  to  obey  orders.  Each  headquarters  became 
the  breeding  place  of  angry,  fault-finding  communica 
tions  to  the  public  and  to  the  War  Department. 
To  one  of  Bragg's  whining  letters  Davis  replied: 


HIS  LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  199 

"It  must  be  a  rare  occurrence  if  a  battle  is  fought 
without  many  errors  and  failures,  but  for  which 
more  important  results  would  have  been  obtained; 
the  experience  of  these  diminishes  the  credit  due, 
impairs  the  public  confidence,  undermines  the  morale 
of  the  Army,  and  works  evil  to  the  cause  for  which 
brave  men  have  died  and  for  which  others  have  the 
same  sacrifice  to  make." 

To  one  of  Bragg's  grumbling  officers  he  wrote: 
"In  this  hour  of  our  country's  greatest  need,  when 
so  much  depends  upon  the  harmonious  cooperation 
of  all  the  agents,  I  feel  that  I  may  confidently  ask 
of  those  who  have  so  often  illustrated  their  patriotism 
by  gallant  deeds  upon  the  field,  that  they  will  not 
allow  personal  antipathies  to  impair  their  usefulness 
to  the  public  service. "  It  is  difficult  to  see  how 
rebuke  could  have  been  made  less  offensive  or  appeal 
more  impressive. 

Meanwhile,  Johnston  who  had  relieved  Bragg, 
and  Lee  confronted  by  Meade  on  the  Rapidan, 
were  begging  for  food  and  clothing;  thousands  of 
the  faithful,  heroic  men  were  without  overcoats  or 
shoes  and  the  winter  was  unusually  severe.  Lee's 
letters  to  his  family  and  the  War  Department,  the 
diaries  and  the  newspapers  tell  the  wants  and 
suffering  of  the  southern  armies.  Moreover  the 
North  was  gathering  an  immense  army  under 
Sherman  to  attack  Johnston  and  one  under  Grant 
to  attack  Lee  as  soon  as  winter  was  over.  From 


200  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

any  point  of  view  the  situation  called  for  patience, 
courage  and  fortitude. 

In  February,  upon  the  reenlistment  of  veteran 
regiments,  Davis  issued  a  feeling  address  to  the 
Army  in  which  he  said:  "  Would  that  it  were  possible 
to  render  my  thanks  to  you  in  person,  and  in  the 
name  of  our  common  country  as  well  as  my  own, 
while  pressing  the  hand  of  each  war-worn  veteran 
to  recognize  his  title  to  our  love,  gratitude  and 
admiration.  With  pride  and  affection  my  heart  has 
accompanied  you  on  every  march,  with  solicitude 
it  has  sought  to  minister  to  your  every  want,  with 
exultation  it  has  marked  your  every  heroic  achieve 
ment."  He  closed  saying:  " Citizen  defenders  of  the 
home,  the  liberties  and  the  altars  of  the  Confederacy! 
That  the  God  whom  we  all  humbly  worship  may 
shield  you  with  His  fatherly  care  and  preserve  you 
for  safe  return  to  the  peaceful  enjoyment  of  your 
friends  and  the  associations  of  those  you  most  love, 
is  the  earnest  prayer  of  your  Commander-in-Chief." 

It  is  said  that  what  comes  from  the  heart  goes  to 
the  heart;  and  why?;  because  there  are  spirits  whom 
God  has  given  homes  in  the  breast  who  clear  the 
way.  And  is  that  address  hushed  and  gone  forever? 
Oh,  no!  it  is  speaking  from  every  monument  in  the 
Southland.  Defeat,  as  a  rule,  has  been  but  another 
word  for  oblivion,  but  not  so  in  the  war  between 
North  and  South;  magnanimity  and  battlefield  born 
esteem  have  made  it  an  honored  guest  of  victory. 


HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY  201 

While  Davis  was  straining  every  nerve  to  meet 
the  impending  dangers  and  under  a  galling  fire  of 
criticism,  on  April  30,  "  Joseph  Emory,  the  most 
beautiful  and  the  brightest  of  our  children,"  says 
Mrs.  Davis  in  her  "Memoirs,"  "fell  while  playing 
on  an  upper  gallery,  down  on  a  brick  pavement  and 
was  almost  instantly  killed."  A  despatch  came  to 
Davis  as  he  sat  heartbroken  by  the  dead  child,  and 
in  trying  to  write  an  answer  stopped  and  stared  at 
his  wife,  asking  in  soft  tones,  "Did  you  tell  me  what 
was  in  it?"  and  laid  down  his  pen  saying  "I  must 
have  this  day  with  my  little  child." 

On  the  morning  after  the  funeral  in  sweet  Holly 
wood,  Sherman  took  up  his  march  for  Atlanta, 
Butler  sailed  up  the  James  for  Richmond,  Siegal 
struck  up  the  Shenandoah  Valley,  and  Grant  crossed 
the  Rapidan.  That  was  a  bright,  bird-singing  May 
morning  and  I  remember  it  well  as  the  sunshine  fell 
on  the  waving  colors.  Lee  with  the  valiant  army  of 
Northern  Virginia  struck  Grant  in  the  Wilderness. 

Let  the  fields  of  that  battle  summer  —  the  Wil 
derness,  Spotsylvania,  Cold  Harbor,  Petersburg, 
Kenesaw  Mountain,  Atlanta,  Franklin  and  Nash 
ville,  tell  their  story.  We  believe  there  are  no 
battlefields  on  this  green  earth  that  can  tell  a  like 
one,  have  like  memories,  or  a  pride  so  exulting  or 
affectionate  in  the  forces  that  on  them  contested 
for  victory.  All  spoke  the  same  language,  all  had 
the  same  ideals,  all  the  same  faith  in  and  attachment 


202  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

to  constitutional  government  "of  and  by  the  people. " 
We  are  sure  that  on  the  anniversary  nights  of  any 
one  of  these  battlefields,  the  others  send  up  a  cheer 
as  they  catch  the  gleam  of  the  magic  camp  fires  in 
the  bending  sky. 

The  first  twenty  days  of  May  were  days  of  intense 
pressure  on  Davis  and  full  of  strange  fate  for  the 
Confederacy.  For  example,  on  the  fifth  the  battle 
of  the  Wilderness  began;  on  the  sixth  Longstreet, 
Lee's  right-hand  man,  was  wounded  within  a  mile 
and  a  half  of  where  Jackson  in  that  same  Wilderness 
fell  and  under  almost  identical  circumstances,  just 
as  victory  was  within  the  grasp  of  Lee. 

When  Butler  came  within  striking  distance  of 
Richmond,  Davis  joined  Beauregard  in  repulsing 
his  advance  and  driving  him  back  into  his  works 
at  Bermuda  Hundred. 

On  the  tenth  Sheridan,  who  had  left  Spotsylvania 
to  cut  Lee's  communications,  defeated  Stuart  at 
Yellow  Tavern,  and  was  within  gunshot  of  Rich 
mond.  Davis  hurried  home  from  his  office,  armed 
himself  and  rode  to  the  front,  urging  by  his  presence 
the  mixed  commands  defending  the  city  to  higher 
displays,  if  possible,  of  courage,  and  who  finally 
drove  Sheridan  away.  Davis  then  went  to  the 
bedside  of  the  gallant  Stuart  who  had  been  mortally 
wounded,  and  taking  his  hand  said,  "How  do  you 
feel,  General."  Stuart  replied,  "Easy,  but  willing 
to  die  if  God  and  my  country  think  I  have  fulfilled 


HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY  203 

my  destiny  and  done  my  duty/'  Mrs.  Davis  says 
in  her  " Memoirs"  that  that  night  her  husband  on 
bended  knees  entreated  God  that  the  precious  life 
might  be  spared  to  our  needy  country,  but  that 
night  he  died.  Stuart  was  only  thirty-one  years 
old,  and  of  a  joyous  nature.  He  lies  with  Davis  in 
Hollywood  Cemetery. 

Richmond,  through  the  superb  gallantry  of  Lee's 
army,  was  safe  for  that  summer;  but  not  so  Atlanta. 
Sherman  with  his  superior  numbers  was  outflanking 
and  forcing  Johnston  to  fall  back  from  one  position 
to  another.  If  Lee,  Grant,  Stuart,  Stonewall  Jackson, 
or  Hampton  had  been  in  Johnston's  place  we  think 
Sherman  would  have  had  to  fight  for  his  life  long 
before  he  reached  the  Etowah  and  Chattahoochee. 
The  public  of  all  that  territory,  the  granary  of 
supplies  of  food  for  Lee  as  well  as  Johnston,  began 
to  besiege  Davis  with  urgent,  almost  indignant, 
inquiries  as  to  whether  Johnston  was  to  fall  back 
forever  without  giving  battle,  finally  posting  a 
delegate  to  Richmond  to  lay  before  him  their 
anxieties  and  manifest  dangers.  Thereupon  Davis 
sent  Bragg  to  interview  Johnston  as  to  his  plans, 
he  was  then  within  sound  of  the  church  bells  of 
Atlanta.  Johnston  giving  Bragg  no  assurance  of 
taking  the  offensive  or  defending  the  city  to  the 
last,  Davis  relieved  him  and  put  Hood  in  command, 
who  at  once  gave  battle,  met  with  defeat,  and 
Atlanta  was  given  up  to  Sherman. 


204  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

Davis  then  visited  Hood  and  addressed  his  Army, 
reviving  its  cast-down  resolution,  and  Hood  struck 
off  with  it  to  cut  Sherman's  communications,  and, 
by  one  of  the  merest  chances  of  war,  lost  gaining  a 
a  victory  over  the  forces  left  by  Sherman  who  had 
headed  for  Savannah. 

In  August,  Farragut,  lashed  to  his  mast,  forced 
his  entrance  by  Forts  Morgan  and  Gaines  into 
Mobile  Bay  and  captured  the  Confederate  iron-clad 
Tennessee.  In  September,  Sheridan  swept  Early 
from  the  Shenandoah  Valley;  in  December,  Hood 
was  utterly  defeated  at  Nashville  and  on  Christmas 
Day,  Savannah  fell  ringing  the  knell  of  the  Con 
federacy.  Thus  ended  that  battle  summer.  But, 
unfortunately,  while  it  was  going  on  and  the  armies 
were  making  a  record  of  stirring  valor,  another 
record  was  being  made,  not  of  glory  but  of  shame 
and  sorrow,  impeaching  the  humanity  of  South  and 
North.  Namely,  the  ghastly  suffering  and  frightful 
death  roll  in  the  prison  camps  of  both  sections, 
mainly  through  the  suspension  of  exchange,  which 
calls  for  a  chapter  of  its  own. 


CHAPTER  XXI 

IN  1876  when  the  pre-war  fraternal  relations 
between  North  and  South  were  beginning  to  revive, 
a  resolution  extending  universal  amnesty  was  offered 
in  Congress.  James  G.  Elaine,  a  brilliant,  magnetic 
man  and  a  prospective  presidential  candidate  of 
the  Republican  Party,  declared,  in  the  discussion 
of  the  resolution,  that  Davis  wasjthe  author  "  know 
ingly,  deliberately  and  wilfully  of  the  gigantic 
murder  and  crime  of  Andersonville, "  where  in  that 
summer  and  autumn  of  1864  the  mortality  of 
Federal  prisoners  was  shocking  in  the  extreme. 
This  charge  iterated  and  reiterated  for  years  by 
politicians,  playing  as  he  for  the  old  soldier  vote, 
found  its  way  into  the  histories  of  the  war,  leaving 
on  the  mind  of  every  schoolboy  who  read  them 
a  lasting  impression  that  Davis  was  guilty  of  the 
alleged  crime.  In  behalf  of  justice,  fair  dealing, 
and  the  integrity  of  history,  let  us  give  the  facts. 

The  first  Confederate  prisoners  taken  in  the 
war,  May,  1861,  were  the  officers  and  crew  of  the 
Savannah,  a  Charleston  pilot  boat  fitted  out  as  a 
privateer  and  sailing  under  letters  of  marque  and 
reprisal.  They  were  immediately  imprisoned,  some 
put  in  irons,  and  subsequently  all  brought  before 
the  courts,  charged  with  piracy  and  treason. 

205 


206  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

As  soon  as  this  was  known,  Mr.  Davis  by  one 
of  his  aides  sent  a  letter  to  Mr.  Lincoln  saying, 
after  rehearsing  the  treatment  of  the  officers  and 
crew  as  given  in  the  newspapers:  "It  is  the  desire 
of  this  Government  so  to  conduct  the  war  now 
existing  as  to  mitigate  its  horrors  as  far  as  may  be 
possible,  and,  with  this  intent  its  treatment  of  the 
prisoners  captured  by  its  forces  [referring  to 
those  taken  in  the  battle  of  Big  Bethel]  has  been 
marked  by  the  greatest  humanity  and  leniency 
consonant  with  public  obligation.  Some  have  been 
permitted  to  return  home,  others  to  remain  at 
large,  and  all  have  been  furnished  with  rations  for 
their  subsistence  such  as  we  allowed  to  our  own 
troops." 

He  then  went  on  to  say:  "A  just  regard  to 
humanity  and  to  the  honor  of  this  Government 
requires  me  to  state  explicitly  that,  painful  as  will 
be  the  necessity,  this  Government  will  deal  out 
to  the  prisoners  held  by  it  the  same  treatment  and 
the  same  fate  as  shall  be  experienced  by  those 
captured  on  the  Savannah;  and  if  driven  to  the 
terrible  necessity  of  retaliation,  that  retaliation 
will  be  extended  so  far  as  shall  be  requisite  to  secure 
the  abandonment  of  a  practice  unknown  to  the 
warfare  of  civilized  man  and  so  barbarous  as  to 
disgrace  the  nation  which  shall  be  guilty  of  inaugurat 
ing  it.  With  this  view  and  because  it  may  not  have 
reached  you,  I  renew  the  proposition  made  to  the 


HIS  LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  207 

Commander  of  the  blockade  squadron,  to  exchange 
for  the  prisoners  ...  an  equal  number,  now 
held  by  us,  according  to  rank." 

The  bearer  of  this  letter  was  not  allowed  an 
interview  with  Mr.  Lincoln,  and  no  answer  ever 
was  made. 

That  his  repugnance  for  retaliation  was  deep 
and  inborn,  is  beyond  question.  Here  to  that 
effect  is  one  of  a  sheaf  of  testimony  that  might  be 
given;  it  is  in  a  letter  to  the  London  Times  by 
Benjamin. 

"For  the  four  years  during  which  I  was  one  of  his 
most  trusted  advisers,  the  recipient  of  his  confidence 
and  the  sharer,  to  the  best  of  my  abilities,  in  his 
tabors  and  responsibilities,  I  learnt  to  know  him 
perhaps  better  than  any  other  living  man.  Neither 
in  private  conversation  nor  in  Cabinet  council 
have  I  ever  heard  him  utter  an  unworthy  thought 
or  ungenerous  sentiment.  .  .  It  was  urged  [in  a 
special  case  from  Missouri,  the  McNeil  case]  not 
only  by  friends,  but  by  members  of  his  Cabinet  in 
Council  also,  that  it  was  his  duty  to  repress  such 
an  outrage  by  retaliation;  he  was  immovable  in 
resistance  of  such  counsels,  insisting  it  was  repug 
nant  to  any  sense  of  justice  and  humanity  that  the 
innocent  should  be  made  the  victims  for  the  crimes 
of  such  monsters." 

Again  in  the  same  letter  Benjamin  said,  in  referring 
to  the  prisoners  in  the  Dahlgren  raid,  upon  whom 


208  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

the  people  called  for  execution,  papers  having  been 
found  on  his  body  after  the  repulse  and  capture  of 
many  of  his  party,  authorizing  the  burning  of 
Richmond  and  the  killing  of  Davis  and  members  of 
his  Cabinet,  "A  discussion  [in  the  Cabinet]  which 
became  so  heated  as  almost  to  create  unfriendly 
feeling,  by  reason  of  the  unshaken  firmness  of  Mr. 
Davis  in  maintaining  that,  although  those  men 
merited  a  refusal  to  grant  them  quarter  in  the  heat 
of  battle,  yet  they  had  been  received  to  mercy  by 
their  captors  as  prisoners  of  war,  and,  as  such,  were 
sacred;  and  that  we  should  be  dishonored  if  harm 
should  overtake  them  after  their  surrender.  To 
Jefferson  Davis  and  to  his  constancy  of  purpose 
did  those  men  owe  their  safety,  in  spite  of  hostile 
public  opinion  and  in  opposition  to  two-thirds  of 
his  Cabinet." 

Davis  of  North  Carolina,  who  succeeded  Benjamin 
as  Attorney-General,  said  on  one  occasion  after  the 
war:  "I  do  not  think  I  am  a  very  cruel  man  but  I 
declare  to  you  that  it  was  the  most  difficult  thing 
in  the  world  to  keep  Mr.  Davis  up  to  the  measure  of 
justice.  He  wanted  to  pardon  everybody.  If  ever  a 
wife,  a  mother  or  a  sister  got  into  his  presence,  it 
took  but  a  little  while  for  their  tears  to  wash  out 
the  record." 

As  will  be  remembered  the  battle  of  Bull  Run 
was  fought  July  21,  and  many  of  our  men  fell  into 
the  hands  of  the  South.  In  the  autumn  relatives 


HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY         209 

and  friends  began  to  implore  for  their  release,  and 
both  Houses  of  Congress  requested  Mr.  Lincoln  to 
take  steps  immediately  to  that  end.  To  avoid 
official  recognition  of  the  belligerent  Confederacy  as 
a  nation,  he  appointed  two  Commissioners  empow 
ered  not  expressly  to  make  an  exchange  but  to 
visit  the  prisoners  and  provide  for  their  wants  and 
comfort. 

Of  course  these  Commissioners  were  not  allowed 
to  cross  the  Confederate  lines,  for  reasons  that  will 
occur  to  any  thoughtful  reader;  but  the  Southern 
officials  they  met  under  flags  of  truce  manifested 
such  a  frank  readiness  for  entering  upon  some  sort 
of  a  general  arrangement  of  exchange  that  they 
agreed  to  a  temporary  cartel,  which  was  subse 
quently  approved  at  Washington.  Some  months 
later,  in  February,  1862,  a  formal  cartel  was  entered 
into  by  Howell  Cobb  on  the  part  of  the  South  and 
General  Wool  of  the  North,  providing  for  the 
exchange,  man  for  man,  within  a  short  time  after 
capture,  and  any  surplus  on  either  side  to  be  released 
on  parole. 

This  cartel  for  a  while,  or  as  long  as  the  South 
had  a  surplus  of  prisoners,  was  carried  out  in  fairly 
good  faith  by  both  sides,  although  its  operation  and 
continuance  were  seriously  interfered  with  by  Butler 
hanging  Mumford,  a  citizen  of  New  Orleans,  on 
Saturday  June  7,  1862,  at  thirteen  minutes  before 
eleven  a.m.,  in  the  presence  of  a  vast  crowd,  for 


210  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

hauling  down  and  trampling  on  the  flag;  by  Davis 
proclaiming  Butler  a  felon  and  authorizing  his 
execution  if  captured  in  retaliation  for  Mumford; 
and  by  Pope's  orders  which  have  already  been 
mentioned.  The  status  of  the  recaptured  slaves  also 
complicated  the  carrying  out  of  its  terms. 

At  length  because  of  the  death  and  suffering  of  so 
many  of  our  prisoners  at  Belle  Isle  and  because  the 
exchange  was  blocked  by  contentions  of  one  kind 
or  another,  Davis,  July  2,  1863  —  the  battle  of 
Gettysburg  was  going  on  —  asked  Stephens,  his 
Vice-President,  to  go  to  Washington  under  flag  of 
truce  and  lay  before  Mr.  Lincoln,  if  he  could  see 
him,  all  the  difficulties  in  the  situation;  to  arrange 
and  settle  all  differences  and  disputes  which  had 
arisen  in  the  execution  of  the  cartel;  to  agree  to  any 
modification  of  its  terms  as  might  be  found  neces 
sary;  and,  finally,  "to  enter  into  such  arrangements 
or  understanding  about  the  mode  of  carrying  on 
hostilities  as  should  confine  the  severities  of  the  war 
within  such  limits  as  were  rightfully  imposed  not 
only  by  modern  civilization,  but  also  by  our  common 
Christianity." 

Mr.  Stephens  was  not  allowed  to  pass  the  lines, 
and  when  the  object  of  his  mission  was  telegraphed 
to  Washington,  the  War  Department,  fully  appreci 
ating  by  this  time  the  significance  of  Lee's  repulse 
at  Gettysburg,  curtly  replied:  "The  customary 
agents  and  channels  are  adequate  for  all  needful 


HIS  LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  211 

communication  and  conferences  between  the  United 
States  and  the  insurgents. "  Had  Pickett  broken 
through  and  the  old  Army  of  the  Potomac  been 
defeated,  would  Stephens  have  been  allowed  to  cross 
our  lines?  Oh,  yes;  would  such  a  contemptuous 
answer  have  been  sent?  Oh,  no,  and  the  gates  of 
every  prison  camp,  South  and  North,  would  have 
swung  wide  open. 

With  the  repulse  of  Lee  and  the  surrender  of 
Vicksburg  and  Port  Hudson,  the  tide  turned  as  to 
surplus  of  prisoners,  the  cartel  broke  wide  apart; 
all  exchanges  were  suspended,  and  the  cry  from 
prison  camps  was  pitiful. 

The  Commissioners,  Federal  and  Confederate,  at 
once  began  charging  each  other  with  the  responsi 
bility  for  wrecking  that  humane  agreement.  After 
weighing  the  evidence  we  are  constrained  to  deny 
entire  innocence  to  either.  Technically,  in  reference 
to  the  slaves  recaptured,  the  North  had  decidedly 
the  best  defence;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  the  South 
was  far  more  frank,  generous  and  consistent. 

Notwithstanding  the  cartel's  official  suspension, 
special  exchanges  dribbled  along  till  Grant  took 
command  of  the  Army  in  the  spring  of  1864.  Before 
moving  on  Lee  he  visited  Butler,  then  at  the  head  of 
the  Department  of  Eastern  Virginia  and  North 
Carolina,  who,  with  his  usual  assumption  of  power, 
had  entered  into  arrangements  with  Judge  Ould, 
the  Confederate  Commissioner  of  Prisoners,  for 


212  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

renewal  of  exchange.  Grant,  on  learning  what  had 
been  done,  forbade  any  further  exchanges.  In 
August,  while  before  Petersburg,  he  wrote  to  Butler, 
who  had  again,  without  any  authority  so  to  do, 
surreptitiously  reopened  negotiations  with  the  Con 
federate  Commissioner:  "It  is  hard  on  our  men 
held  in  Southern  prisons  not  to  exchange  them, 
but  it  is  humanity  to  those  left  in  the  ranks 
to  fight  our  battles.  Every  man  released,  on 
parole  or  otherwise,  becomes  an  active  soldier 
against  us,  either  directly  or  indirectly.  If  we  com 
mence  a  systemi  of  exchange  which  liberates  all 
prisoners  taken,  we  will  have  to  fight  on  until  the 
whole  South  is  exterminated.  If  we  hold  those 
caught,  they  amount  to  no  more  than  as  many  dead 
men.  At  this  time  to  release  all  rebel  prisoners 
North  would  insure  Sherman's  defeat  and  would 
compromise  our  safety  here." 

This  letter  is  the  highest  testimonial  that  was  ever 
paid  to  the  gallantry  of  Lee's  army.  Grant's  losses 
from  the  day  we  crossed  the  Rapidan,  the  fourth  of 
May,  till  the  date  of  this  letter  in  August,  had 
almost,  if  not  quite,  equalled  Lee's  entire  strength 
at  the  outset  of  the  campaign;  and  it  was  the  mem 
ory  of  these  losses  that  beat  down,  for  the  moment, 
the  charitable  impulses  of  Grant's  nature.  When 
the  immediate  dangers  were  over,  it  will  be  seen 
that  he  was  true  to  himself  and  extended  every 
facility  for  the  welfare  of  the  prisoners  of  both  sides. 


HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY  213 

At  this  point  it  is  only  due  to  Butler  to  say  that 
no  man,  North  or  South,  did  more,  not  one  even 
approached  him  in  persistent  endeavor  to  effect 
exchange  and  thereby  save  thousands  of  lives;  and 
we  have  no  doubt  that  in  the  meditative  hours  of  old 
age  these  efforts,  clothed  in  beauty,  came  back  to 
comfort  him. 

v  When  Grant's  letter  to  Butler  prohibiting  further 
exchange  became  known  in  the  prison  camps,  South 
and  North,  hope  fled;  cold-eyed  despair  took  her 
chair  beside  the  hospital  cots;  shallow  graves  soon 
welcomed  the  pale,  homesick,  emaciated  youths, 
and  from  then  on  almost  every  hour  of  day  and 
night,  from  Andersonville  and  Salisbury,  from  Rock 
Island  and  Elmira,  their  spirits  were  flying  upward, 
duly  exchanged;  yes,  duly  exchanged  to  join  the 
army  of  the  blessed. 

All  the  autumn  and  early  winter  of  1864  the  death 
rate  at  Andersonville  was  especially  shocking;  and 
at  every  other  Southern  camp  as  well  as  at  every 
Northern  camp  it  was  heavy.  The  South  maintained 
that  it  did  the  best  it  could;  that  its  supplies  of 
medicine  were  exhausted  and  its  supply  of  food 
reduced  to  barely  enough  to  keep  soul  and  body 
together  in  its  army;  which  I  know  to  be  true  from 
the  haversacks  of  the  dead  on  the  fields  of  Spotsyl- 
vania  and  Petersburg. 

It  is  a  matter  of  fact,  Confederate   authorities 
throughout  that  autumn  when   the  captives  were 


214  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

falling  like  the  leaves  of  a  white  ash  the  morning 
after  a  frost,  plead  and  plead  for  exchange,  offering 
at  last  to  let  every  one  go  home  without  equivalent. 
The  South  can  without  fear  or  hesitation  appeal  to 
the  official  War  Records  as  to  the  desire  and  will  of 
the  Confederate  War  Department  to  mitigate  the 
horrible  conditions. 

Authors  of  repute  have  seen  fit  to  incorporate  in 
their  histories  of  the  war,  moving  accounts  of  the 
suffering  in  the  Southern  camps  and  the  ghastly 
spectacle  of  their  victims;  accompanied,  furthermore, 
by  extracts  from  letters,  written  by  prominent  per 
sons  to  Davis,  protesting  conditions  in  some  of  the 
camps  as  a  shame  and  dishonor;  thereby,  with 
infernal  malice,  thrusting  him  into  the  picture  with 
all  its  speaking  condemnation.  But  they  have  not 
described  the  like  suffering  or  the  ghastly  spectacle 
of  the  hollow-eyed  prisoners  in  Northern  camps,  on 
delivery;  nor  have  they  given  extracts  from  letters 
written  by  clergymen  and  men  of  prominence  to 
Mr.  Lincoln,  censuring  him  for  refusal  to  exchange, 
all  of  which  can  be  found  in  the  same  volume  of 
official  War  Records.  Much  of  the  reports  by  Com 
mittees  of  Congress,  Federal  and  Confederate,  as  to 
the  condition  of  camps  and  the  appearance  of 
returned  prisoners,  was  mere  war  propaganda;  and, 
as  such,  is  unreliable,  carrying  with  it,  as  that  of 
all  wars,  the  seeds  of  its  own  early  decay. 

If,  as  has  been  said  before,  Mr.  Davis  is  to  be  held 


HIS   LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  215 

responsible  for  the  dead  Northern  prisoners  merely 
because  he  was  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Con 
federate  armies,  may  not  Mr.  Lincoln  by  similar 
reasoning  be  held  responsible  for  the  Southern  dead 
in  Northern  prison  camps? 

A  word,  now,  as  to  the  records  of  deaths  and  the 
number  of  prisoners.  They  were  first  brought  to 
light  by  Hill  of  Georgia  replying  to  Elaine's  charge. 
He  gave  the  figures  of  the  deaths  as  reported  by 
Stanton  in  response  to  a  request  of  Congress:  " Con 
federate  dead  in  Northern  prisons  26,436.  Union 
dead  in  Southern  prisons  22,576."  As  to  the  number 
of  prisoners,  Hill  referred  to  a  report  of  Surgeon- 
General  Barnes,  claiming  that  it,  as  well  as  Stanton's 
report,  was  available  for  the  inspection  of  any 
member  of  the  House.  Barnes  gave:  " Total  pris 
oners  held  in  North  220,000;  held  by  the  South 
270,000."  Blaine  and  Garfield  in  their  reply  on  the 
following  day  did  not  deny  the  existence  of  this 
report;  Garfield  said  that  he  had  had  a  note  from 
Surgeon-General  Barnes  relative  to  the  figures  in  it, 
which  seems  to  confirm  its  existence  at  that  time. 

Twenty-seven  years  after,  when  the  celebrated 
historian  Rhodes  asked  the  then  surgeon-general  for 
a  copy  of  the  Barnes  Report,  he  was  told  there  was 
no  such  document  in  the  War  Department;  and  to 
my  request  for  a  copy,  I  was  so  informed.  What 
became  of  it?  It  is  possible  that  Barnes,  finding  his 
figures  unreliable,  withdrew  his  report;  but  that  he 


216  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

did  make  such  a  report  is  beyond  the  shadow  of 
doubt.  My  only  excuse  for  bringing  in  its  contested 
figures  is  to  defend  Mr.  Davis  from  a  charge  that 
in  the  main  was  untrue  and  did  him  much  wrong. 
Finally  let  me  avow  there  has  been  no  point  in 
this  narrative  that  I  have  dwelt  upon  with  so  little 
pleasure.  For  in  all  reason,  propriety  and  self-respect 
I  submit  that  the  day  for  the  discussion  of  the 
treatment  of  prisoners,  South  and  North,  has  long 
gone  by.  In  the  winged  language  of  the  gifted  Sir 
Thomas  Browne,  "Let  us  write  our  wrongs  in  ashes; 
draw  the  curtain  of  night  on  our  injuries;  shut  them 
up  in  the  tower  of  oblivion  and  let  them  be  as  though 
they  had  not  been/'  So  then,  let  us  leave  this 
disgrace  where  it  lies  —  off,  off  to  one  side  in  the 
graveyard  of  our  country's  history.  She  laments  the 
record,  it  was  not  creditable  to  either  section. 


CHAPTER  XXII 

IN  the  South,  from  the  earliest  Colonial  times, 
New  Year's,  for  high  and  low,  young  and  old,  white 
and  black,  had  been  the  culmination  of  a  week  of 
hospitality,  family  visiting,  feasting  and  happiness; 
outdoor  sports  during  the  day,  dancing  at  night  in 
cabin  and  manor-house,  which  were  decked  with 
mistletoe,  ferns  and  holly. 

But  not  so  the  week  ending  January  1,  1865.  There 
was  not  a  home  in  which  was  rejoicing.  Crutches 
and  empty  chairs  had  taken  the  place  of  mistletoe 
and  holly.  Many  had  lost  one  or  more  soldier  sons, 
and  instead  of  joy  and  plenty,  sorrow  and  want 
looked  in  at  the  window  when  the  evening  lamp  or 
candle  was  lit.  Bare  chimneys,  torn  gardens  and 
fire-scorched  dooryard  trees  were  all  that  was  left 
of  hundreds  of  field  and  flock-overlooking  mansions. 
Where  Festivity  was  wont  to  hold  her  holiday  of 
joy,  War's  Furies  were  having  one  of  their  orgies  on 
the  track  of  desolation  that  Sherman  had  left  in  his 
relentless  march.  The  fate  of  the  Confederacy, 
—  when  would  the  war  end  —  was  the  one  all-absorb 
ing  topic  before  the  fireside  of  every  home;  nothing 
else  was  talked  about;  grave  care  never  left  the 
doorway  nor  the  pillow. 

217 


218  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

But  that  was  not  all,  nor  the  worst  of  it,  by  any 
means.  The  mighty  soldier,  public  opinion,  had  lost 
heart,  and  the  humble,  who  had  risked  all  they  had 
-  their  lives  —  for  the  Confederacy  were  cast  down 
and  low  in  mind,  wondering  if  God  had  turned  His 
face  away  from  their  cause. 

It  was  a  dark,  sore  time  for  the  South;  and  what 
filled  her  cup  with  wormwood  and  gall  was  the  fact 
that  the  Governors  of  several  States,  under  the 
cloak  of  law,  were  stabbing  the  body  politic;  many 
ambitious,  jealous  and  disappointed  politicians  and 
impatient  fiery  editors  had  turned  fault-finders  and 
were  sowing  broadcast  the  seed  of  discord  and 
gloom. 

The  spirit  of  the  Confederacy,  that  up  to  that 
time  had  been  their  welcome  and  honored  guest, 
now  in  sorrow  quitted  their  querulous  firesides  for 
the  hearths  of  her  more  steadfast  friends  and  for  the 
campfires  of  her  gallant  lovers  with  the  colors. 
But  since  only  here  and  there  a  ragged  fragment 
was  left  of  her  armies  that  had  so  valiantly  contested 
the  battlefields  of  Shiloh,  Perryville,  Stone  River, 
Chickamauga,  Missionary  Ridge,  Atlanta,  Franklin 
and  Nashville,  there  was  no  place  for  her  to  find  a 
soldier  home  save  in  Richmond,  Johnston's  and  Lee's 
armies. 

On  the  first  day  of  January  then,  1865,  there  was 
widespread,  peevish  disaffection;  and  confidence  in 
ultimate  success  had  given  way  to  despair  in  many 


HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY  219 

a  household.  Sherman  was  on  his  devastating, 
triumphant  march  with  more  than  twice  as  many 
men  as  his  adversary.  Grant  was  only  waiting  for 
spring  to  attack  Lee.  Wilmington,  the  last  port, 
was  about  to  be  closed.  Available  supplies  of  food 
and  clothing  were  almost  exhausted.  The  situation, 
to  lookers-on,  seemed,  and  almost  was,  hopeless; 
only  a  matter  of  weeks  and  months  now  till  the 
South  would  have  to  lay  down  its  arms.  In  other 
words,  at  the  beck  of  its  conquerors  it  would  have  to 
come  under  the  yoke,  a  contingency,  which  for  four 
years  it  had  fought  against  and  dreaded,  subjugation 
to  a  section  that  it  had  reason  to  fear  was  revengeful. 

To  this  day  there  are  people  in  the  world  (and 
some  are  in  the  South)  who  wonder,  in  view  of  the 
inevitable  downfall  of  the  Confederacy,  that  Davis 
did  not  own  up  to  defeat  and  ask  for  terms.  Terms! 
terms!  if  suffrage  to  the  emancipated  slaves  should 
be  insisted  upon;  if  high  officials  in  or  out  of  the 
army  should  not  be  eligible  for  Congress,  who  would 
or  could  carry  them  out?  Of  all  the  phases  in  the 
life  of  the  Confederacy,  not  one  opens  upon  such  a 
field  of  speculation.  But  mark  my  word,  whoever 
enters  it  will  soon  find  himself  in  a  labyrinth  of 
delusive,  contingent  possibilities,  not  a  path  he  can 
take  that  will  lead  him  to  certainty,  all  ending  in 
miry,  tangled  political  swamps,  so  to  speak,  or  to 
the  brink  of  anarchy. 

It  may  be  that  a  wiser  mind  than  mine  can  enter 


220  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

this  labyrinth  and  find  a  way  out  that  would  justify 
asking  for  terms,  but  I  cannot  find  such  an  one  and 
am  convinced  that  it  was  better,  far  better  for  the 
South  as  well  as  the  North,  and  above  all  for  our 
country  at  large,  that  Davis  did  not  ask  for  terms 
and  stood  by  the  ship  until  she  went  down. 

Perhaps  this  is  as  good  a  place  as  any  to  give  an 
account  of  the  Hampton  Roads  Conference  where, 
on  February  3,  1865,  Mr.  Lincoln  and  Mr.  Seward 
met  commissioners  appointed  by  Davis  to  confer 
upon  bringing  the  war  to  an  end.  The  Conference 
was  the  outcome  of  a  visit  by  Mr.  F.  P.  Blair,  Senior, 
of  Washington,  D.  C.,  to  Davis  in  Richmond.  Blair 
was  a  boyhood  friend  of  Davis  at  Transylvania,  the 
editor  of  the  Globe  in  Washington  when  Davis  was 
Secretary  of  War  and  Senator,  a  sagacious  politician, 
had  pulled  the  stroke  oar  in  every  contest  between 
Whig  and  Democrat  for  thirty  years,  and  was  then 
on  intimate  and  confidential  terms  with  Mr.  Lincoln. 

His  pass  through  Grant's  lines  was  as  follows, 
written  on  a  card:  "Allow  the  bearer,  F.  P.  Blair, 
Senior,  to  pass  our  lines,  go  South  and  return. 
A.  Lincoln."  Manifestly  he  and  Mr.  Lincoln  had 
talked  the  matter  over  more  than  once. 

From  his  manuscript  giving  an  account  of  his 
interview,  it  appears  that  the  scheme  he  had  worked 
out  in  the  longing  hours  of  his  old  age  for  reuniting 
the  sections  was  to  assert  the  Monroe  Doctrine  and 
have  the  armies  of  North  and  South  march  to 


HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY  221 

Mexico  and  drive  out  Maximilian,  whom  Napoleon 
III  had  placed  on  the  throne  with  a  view  of  making 
Mexico  a  colonial  dependency  of  France.  The 
armies'  common  experiences  in  the  campaign  into 
Mexico  and  the  turning  of  public  attention  away 
from  immediate  home  questions,  Mr.  Blair  believed, 
would  give  a  chance  for  the  renewal  of  old  ties. 

After  fully  unfolding  his  scheme  in  his  interview 
with  Davis,  he  observed:  " There  is  my  problem,  Mr 
Davis;  do  you  think  it  possible  to  be  solved? "  Davis 
after  consideration  replied:  "I  think  so."  Touching 
the  project  of  bringing  the  sections  together,  Davis 
thought  the  great  difficulty  was  the  excessive  vin- 
dictiveness  produced  by  outrages  perpetrated  in  the 
invaded  States  during  the  war.  "In  relation  to  the 
vindictiveness  produced  by  the  war,"  says  Blair,  "I 
thought  he  was  mistaken  in  supposing  it  would  be 
attended  with  great  difficulty  in  producing  reconcile 
ment  between  the  States  and  the  people." 

Blair  goes  on  in  his  manuscript  to  tell  what  had 
happened  in  passing  through  the  lines  as  a  proof  of 
early  reconcilement,  that  the  soldiers  had  manifested 
no  unfriendly  feelings;  that  Captain  Deacon  of 
Boston,  who  carried  him  through  the  lines  to  deliver 
him  over  to  Captain  Davis  of  South  Carolina,  drew 
his  bottle  from  his  bag  and  proposed  to  drink  his 
health;  that  they  drank  with  mutual  good  will  and 
gave  each  other  their  hands.  "This  spirit  of  magna 
nimity  exists  in  the  soldiers  of  both  sides.  It  is  only 


JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

the  politicians  and  those  who  profit  or  hope  to  profit 
by  the  disasters  of  war  who  indulge  in  acrimony. 
Mr.  Davis  said  that  what  I  remarked  was  very 
just  in  the  main." 

In  reply  to  Blair's  holding  out  the  fame  Davis 
would  acquire  by  bringing  peace,  he  replied:  "What 
his  name  might  be  in  history  he  cared  not,  if  he 
could  restore  the  prosperity  and  happiness  of  his 
country;  that  was  the  end  and  aim  of  his  being. 
He  said  I  ought  to  know  with  what  reluctance  he  had 
been  drawn  out  of  the  Union;  that  he  had  followed 
the  old  flag  longer  and  with  more  devotion  than  any 
thing  on  earth;  that  when  the  flag  unfurled  itself  in 
the  breeze  [at  Bull  Run]  he  saw  it  with  a  sigh." 

A  memorandum  was  made  of  the  interview  and 
when  written  out  was  submitted  to  Mr.  Blair, 
"and,"  says  Mr.  Davis  in  the  "Rise  and  Fall  of 
the  Confederacy",  "altered  in  so  far  as  he  desired  in 
any  respect,  to  change  the  expressions  employed." 
Mr.  Blair  was  given  a  copy  and  authorized  to  show 
it  to  Mr.  Lincoln. 

The  last  sentence  of  this  memorandum  was  as 
follows:  "Our  conference  ended  with  no  other  result 
than  an  agreement  that  he  would  learn  whether  Mr. 
Lincoln  would  adopt  his  [Mr.  Blair's]  project  and 
send  or  receive  Commissioners  to  negotiate  for  a 
peaceful  solution  of  the  questions  at  issue;  that  he 
would  report  to  him  my  readiness  to  enter  upon 
negotiations;  and  that  I  knew  of  no  insurmountable 


HIS   LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  223 

obstacles  to  such  a  treaty  of  peace  as  would  secure 
greater  advantages  to  both  parties  than  any  result 
which  arms  could  achieve." 

Davis  gave  a  letter  to  Mr.  Blair  saying:  "I  have 
no  disposition  to  find  obstacles  in  forms  and  am 
willing,  now  as  heretofore,  to  enter  into  negotiations 
for  the  restoration  of  peace,  to  send  or  receive  Com 
missioners  .  .  .  and  renew  the  effort  to  enter  into 
conference  with  a  view  to  secure  peace  to  the  two 
countries." 

Mr.  Blair,  upon  submitting  this  letter  to  Mr. 
Lincoln,  received  from  him  a  reply  as  follows:  "Sir: 
You  having  shown  me  Mr.  Davis'  letter  to  you  of 
the  twelfth  instant,  you  may  say  to  him  that  I  have 
constantly  been,  am  now,  and  shall  continue  ready 
to  receive  any  agent  whom  he  or  any  other  influential 
person  now  resisting  the  National  authority  may 
informally  send  to  me  with  a  view  of  securing  peace 
to  the  people  of  our  common  country.  Yours,  etc., 
A.  Lincoln." 

Blair  returned  to  Richmond  and  gave  Davis  this 
letter,  and  in  the  course  of  their  talk  Blair  suggested 
that  Lee  and  Grant  might  enter  into  an  arrangement 
by  which  hostilities  would  be  suspended  and  the 
way  paved  for  ending  the  war.  Davis  told  him  that 
he  "would  willingly  intrust  to  General  Lee  such 
negotiations  as  were  indicated,"  and,  subsequently 
Lee,  at  his  suggestion,  wrote  to  Grant  for  an  inter 
view  with  that  end  in  view;  Grant  replied  wisely 


224  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

that  he  had  no  power  to  bind  the  North,  that  the 
matter  was  wholly  in  the  hands  of  civil  authorities. 
Mr.  Blair,  during  his  two  visits  to  Richmond, 
had  met  and  talked  freely  with  many  of  his  old 
friends  and  political  associates  now  members  of  the 
Confederate  Congress  or  connected  with  Depart 
ments;  and  here  let  me  observe  that  there  was  no 
man  so  open-hearted  in  the  world  as  the  old-time 
Southerner  once  he  was  sure  of  the  sincerity  of  his 
companion.  So  then,  they  withheld  nothing  of  their 
hopes  or  fears  from  their  aged  friend,  and  doubtless 
freely  confessed  that  the  tide  was  strong  against 
them;  in  fact,  it  only  had  to  rise  a  little  higher  and 
they  were  done  for.  But  the  great  question  they  put 
to  Mr.  Blair  was,  What  terms  will  the  North  give? 
Blair  assured  them  that  Lincoln  was  inclined  to  treat 
them  generously,  every  drop  of  his  blood  was 
Southern,  conservative  and  not  radical,  beside  he 
was  naturally  kind-hearted.  The  result  was  that  such 
a  fervent  sentiment  for  opening  negotiations  with 
Lincoln  for  peace  set  in,  that  Davis  had  to  take  the 
matter  up,  although  from  the  very  outset  he  had  little 
faith  in  success,  for  the  reason  that,  when  it  actually 
came  to  concrete  terms,  it  would  not  be  Mr.  Lin 
coln  the  South  would  have  to  deal  with,  but  Stanton 
and  the  forceful,  radical  members  of  Congress. 
However,  he  appointed  Vice-President  Stephens  of 
Georgia,  to  whom  Lincoln  had  virtually  offered  a 
position  in  his  Cabinet,  Hunter  of  Virginia,  an 


HIS  LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  225 

ex-United  States  Senator,  and  John  A.  Campbell, 
Assistant  Secretary  of  War,  and  ex-member  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  a  Commission 
to  go  to  Washington  with  the  following  certificate  of 
appointment:  "In  conformity  with  the  letter  of 
Mr.  Lincoln  of  which  the  foregoing  is  a  copy,  you 
are  requested  to  proceed  to  Washington  City  for  an 
informal  conference  with  him  upon  the  issues 
involved  in  the  existing  war,  and  for  the  purpose  of 
securing  peace  to  the  two  countries/' 

Benjamin,  Davis'  Secretary  of  State,  had  drawn 
up  a  much  more  diplomatic  form  of  appointment: 
"You  are  requested  to  proceed  to  Washington  City 
for  conference  with  him  [Mr.  Lincoln]  upon  the 
subject  to  which  it  relates."  Davis  made  a  serious 
mistake  in  modifying  Benjamin's  draft  —  more  than 
one  of  my  unconverted  friends  has  characterized  it 
as  "a  h  — 11  of  a  mistake,"  and  for  the  sake  of 
good  fellowship  I  never  found  fault  with  their 
amendment.  However,  after  the  war  was  over, 
Benjamin,  in  reply  to  a  letter  from  Davis  as  to  the 
reasons  given  by  him  to  the  Cabinet  when  the  draft 
was  submitted,  says  that  he  [Davis]  contended  if 
the  words  "two  countries"  were  left  out,  it  would 
be  a  virtual  concession  from  the  head  of  the  Con 
federacy  that  it  had  abandoned  its  claim  for 
existence,  had  been  a  mere  factional  rebellion  and 
would  be  so  argued  if  the  case  ever  came  before  the 
Courts.  Benjamin  approved  the  change  of  language. 


226  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

Nevertheless  we  think  it  was  a  mistake,  for  under 
whatever  certificate  of  appointment  his  Commis 
sioners  might  meet  Mr.  Lincoln  or  Commissioners  he 
might  appoint,  the  terms  would  not  have  been  other 
than  they  were,  and  Davis  would  have  had  the  same 
reasons  for  refusing  to  accept  them  and  thereby 
would  have  escaped  the  charge  of  obstinacy.  It 
goes  without  saying,  that  Davis  never  was  made  for 
a  diplomat;  and  so  far  as  the  nature  of  the  issue 
involved,  it  was  mighty  lucky  for  the  Confederacy 
and  the  country  he  was  not;  for  a  diplomat,  as  soon 
as  Vicksburg  fell,  would  have  patched  up  some  sort 
of  a  peace  that  would  have  lasted  but  a  little  while, 
and  war  broken  out  again  more  bitterly  than  before 
between  the  sections. 

On  the  third  day  of  February,  1865,  Mr.  Lincoln 
and  Mr.  Seward  had  a  conference  with  the  Con 
federate  Commission  on  board  a  vessel  in  Hampton 
Roads  off  Fort  Monroe.  The  upshot  of  it  all  was 
that  the  Southern  forces  should  lay  down  their  arms 
and  go  home,  accept  the  abolition  of  slavery  as  an 
irrevocable  fact,  with  an  assurance  of  freedom  from 
penalties  of  all  kinds  so  far  as  Lincoln  could  secure 
them,  and  their  States  admitted  to  representation 
as  of  old  in  Congress. 

The  Confederate  Commission  urged  more  explicit 
terms,  but  Mr.  Lincoln  could  not  and  wisely  did  not 
pledge  himself  to  anything  more  explicit  and  parted 
with  them  as  friends  and  not  enemies.  They  went 


HIS   LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  227 

home  disconsolate  and  had  to  report  that  no  extended 
armistice  would  be  allowed,  no  treaty  or  agreement 
leading  to  ultimate  settlement  between  the  Con 
federate  or  individual  States  would  be  considered, 
because  that  would  be  a  recognition  of  their  existence 
as  a  separate  country,  that  there  was  nothing  left 
for  them  but  unconditional  submission.  In  view  of 
all  that  had  happened  in  the  four  years  of  war,  we 
think  they  had  no  right  to  expect  anything  else. 

On  February  6,  Davis  wrote  to  Senator  Hill  of 
Georgia:  "The  Commissioners  have  returned.  They 
met  Lincoln  and  Seward  at  Fortress  Monroe,  were 
informed  that  neither  the  Confederate  States  nor  an 
individual  State  could  be  recognized  as  having  power 
to  enter  any  agreement  presenting  the  conditions  of 
peace.  Nothing  less  would  be  accepted  than  uncon 
ditional  submission  to  the  Government  and  laws  of 
the  United  States,  and  that  Congress  had  adopted  a 
Constitutional  Amendment  for  the  emancipation  of 
all  the  slaves,  which  disposed  of  that  question." 

On  the  same  day,  in  obedience  to  an  Act  of  Con 
gress,  Lee  was  appointed  Commander-in-Chief  of  all 
the  armies  and  in  acknowledging  his  appointment  to 
the  Adjutant-General  said:  "I  am  indebted  alone  to 
the  kindness  of  his  Excellency,  the  President,  for  my 
nomination  to  the  high  and  arduous  office  and  wish 
I  had  the  ability  to  fill  it  to  advantage."  As  a  matter 
of  fact  his  appointment  was  made  by  the  newspapers 
and  a  cabal  in  the  Confederate  Congress  inimical  to 


228  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

Davis  that  had  secured  the  passage  of  the  Act.  On 
the  fourteenth,  Lee  issued  a  general  order  to  the 
Army,  saying:  "The  choice  between  war  and  abject 
submission  is  before  them.  To  such  a  proposal, 
brave  men  with  arms  in  their  hands  can  have  but 
one  answer.  They  cannot  barter  manhood  for  peace, 
nor  the  right  of  self-government  for  life  or  property." 

Meanwhile  mass  meetings,  stirred  to  the  deepest 
enthusiasm  by  Davis  and  others,  had  been  held  in 
Richmond,  protesting  unwillingness  to  accept  sub 
jugation  and  determination  to  fight  it  out  to  the  last. 
That  Davis  rose  to  a  great  height  in  eloquence  on 
these  occasions  was  conceded  by  his  bitterest 
enemies.  But  never  was  defiant  eloquence  more 
fatefully  thrown  away  or  so  futile;  the  eyes  of  the 
dying  Confederacy  were  glazing,  and  all  that  it 
accomplished  was  to  focus  on  him  the  responsibility 
of  the  entire  South  for  the  war,  and  to  increase  in  the 
North  a  will  to  punish  and  reluctance  to  forgive. 

But  suppose  he  had  made  an  apology  or  expressed 
hopes  for  charity,  what  a  figure  this  would  have  been 
and  how  scorned  by  every  battlefield  where  the 
banners  of  the  Confederacy  had  been  carried! 
Nature  loves  her  peaceful,  ranging  hills  with  their 
rich  valleys  of  waving  grain  and  grazing  flocks,  but 
she  calls  on  the  sturdy  granite  to  face  an  angry  sea. 


CHAPTER  XXIII 

IN  desperation  over  the  Peace  Conference,  and  the 
black  oncoming  cloud  of  defeat  turning  gray  show 
ing  it  had  a  tempest  in  its  breast,  a  measure  to  free 
all  slaves  who  would  enlist  was  passed  by  the  Con 
gress  with  the  approval  of  Davis  and  Lee.  But  it 
was  altogether  too  late,  as  well  as  the  offer  Davis 
made  to  England  to  free  every  slave  if  she  would 
acknowledge  the  independence  of  the  Confederacy. 
The  negroes,  with  good  sense,  paid  no  attention  to 
the  offer  of  Congress,  for  they  knew  right  well  that 
freedom  was  coming  to  them,  without  shedding  a 
drop  of  their  own  blood  or  that  of  any  one.  Their 
course  was  no  disappointment  to  Davis  and  he  never 
found  fault  with  them,  nor  is  there  any  evidence 
that  he  grew  petulant  or  despondent  over  the  failure 
of  the  whites  who,  for  one  reason  or  another,  turned 
a  deaf  ear  to  Lee's  appeal  to  come  back  into  the 
ranks  again  where  they  were  needed  so  much.  Let 
this  be  said  for  Davis,  that  while  he  was  sensitive, 
over-sensitive,  to  any  disrespect  or  reflection  on  his 
honor,  he  never  gave  way  to  ill-natured  disappoint 
ment  over  the  conduct  of  any  one,  but  he  would 
wonder  over  the  lack  of  spirit  in  the  face  of  trial. 
As  for  himself,  dark  as  the  hour  was,  he  met  the 

229 


230  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

world,  in  his  home  or  on  the  street,  with  the  same 
unfailing  natural  courtesy.  His  face  was  paler  and 
care  sat  on  his  brow,  but  the  Peace  Conference  had 
not  benumbed  but  had,  in  fact,  stimulated  his  will. 

In  the  early  morning  of  March  25,  after  long 
consultation  with  Davis  over  the  situation,  Lee  made 
a  well  studied  assault  on  Grant's  line  near  the 
Appomattox  with  a  view  to  compel  him  to  pull  back 
his  left,  which  threatened  Lee's  only  way  of  safe 
withdrawal  toward  Johnston,  who  was  confronting 
Sherman  in  North  Carolina.  Gordon,  who  made  the 
attack,  was  not  supported  as  was  planned  and  met 
with  defeat.  He  was  a  strikingly  handsome  man 
with  very  black  hair,  fair  temples  and  something 
superb  in  his  bearing.  Like  Lee,  McPherson  and 
Hancock  he  seemed  to  carry  glory  with  him  to  the 
battlefield. 

Instead  of  pulling  back  his  lines,  Grant,  the  most 
modest  and  sweetly  attractive  man  that  ever  wore  a 
uniform,  fathoming  Lee's  design,  pushed  forward  and 
captured  Five  Forks.  That  victory  was  won  on  a 
lowery  Saturday  afternoon,  April  1,  and  on  Sunday 
forenoon  the  sun  was  shining  and  the  people  of  Rich 
mond  were  on  their  way  to  church.  Lee  sent  a 
despatch  to  Davis  that  he  would  withdraw  that  night 
all  troops  in  the  lines  of  Petersburg  and  Richmond. 

Davis  was  in  St.  Paul's  —  it  was  communion 
Sunday  —  when  a  messenger  brought  in  the  despatch. 
He  at  once  withdrew  and,  that  night  toward  mid- 


HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY  231 

night,  boarded  a  train  for  Danville.  The  last  com 
mand  from  Lee's  army  from  the  lines  around  Rich 
mond  passed  through  its  streets  and  crossed  the 
James  just  before  daybreak  on  its  way  to  Appomat- 
tox,  and  when  the  sun  rose  the  capital  of  the  Old 
Dominion  was  on  fire  and  her  people  in  tears. 

The  train  Davis  was  on  with  his  Cabinet  and  Con 
gressmen  and  others  whose  homes  were  not  in 
Virginia  was  long  and  heavy.  The  engine,  like  the 
Confederacy,  had  seen  its  best  day  and  its  speed  was 
slow;  the  news  that  he  was  aboard  outran  it,  and 
wondering  crowds  gathered  at  every  station,  crying 
to  see  him.  He  addressed  them  in  confident  terms, 
saying  that,  although  the  capital  had  fallen,  Lee's 
indomitable  old  army  was  still  in  the  field  and,  if 
they  would  still  keep  up  their  courage,  and  those 
who  were  able  would  rally  to  the  colors  and  meet 
the  enemy  with  the  bravery  of  old,  all  would  be 
well  at  last. 

On  the  fifth  of  April,  from  Danville,  he  issued  a 
proclamation  in  which  he  said:  "It  would  be  unwise 
to  conceal  the  moral  and  material  injury  to  our 
cause  resulting  from  the  occupation  of  our  capital 
by  the  enemy.  It  is  equally  unwise  and  unworthy 
of  us  to  allow  our  own  energies  to  falter  and  our 
efforts  to  become  relaxed  under  reverses  however 
calamitous  they  may  be.  ...  It  is  for  us,  my 
countrymen,  to  show,  by  our  bearing  under  reverses, 
how  wretched  has  been  the  self-deception  of  those 


232  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

who  have  believed  us  less  able  to  endure  misfortune 
with  fortitude  than  to  encounter  danger  with  cour 
age.  .  .  .  Animated  by  that  confidence  in  your 
spirit  of  fortitude  which  never  failed  me  yet,  I 
announce  to  you,  my  fellow-countrymen,  that  it  is 
my  purpose  to  maintain  your  cause  with  my  whole 
heart  and  soul,  that  I  never  will  consent  to  abandon 
to  the  enemy  one  foot  of  the  soil  of  any  of  the 
States  of  the  Confederacy.  Let  us,  then,  not  despair 
but,  relying  on  God,  meet  the  foe  with  fresh  defiance 
and  with  unconquered,  unconquerable  hearts/' 

The  Dan  that  flows  by  Danville  and  is  born  in  the 
Alleghenies  is  a  pleasant  river  to  see,  with  its  big 
willows  and  adjacent  farms.  Along  its  banks  spring 
was  weaving  her  bridal  veil;  new-shorn  sheep  were 
grazing  in  stump-dotted  pastures;  the  crescent- 
breasted  lark,  the  catbird  and  the  mocking  bird 
were  singing  light-heartedly,  but  Davis'  heart  was 
not  light  as  he  looked  over  the  fields  along  the  Dan. 
Those  were  long  and  anxious  days  for  him.  His  first 
thought  in  the  morning  and  the  last  at  night  was, 
How  is  it  going  with  Lee  and  his  gallant  old  army  of 
Gettysburg,  the  Wilderness  and  Spotsylvania? 

Not  hearing  a  word,  he  could  stand  it  no  longer  and 
sent  young  Wise,  the  author  of  that  fascinating  book, 
"The  End  of  an  Era,"  to  Lee  for  tidings.  Wise 
found  Lee  at  Farmville  pushing  on  with  his  heroic 
army,  its  banners,  that  had  waved  triumphant 
on  many  battlefields,  still  flying,  but  its  corps 


HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY  233 

reduced  to  mere  remnants,  tired,  hungry  and  hope 
less,  yet  displaying  that  soldierly  steadfastness  which 
lights  the  last  days  of  the  Confederacy  with  enduring 
glory.  That  was  on  Friday  and  on  Sunday  fore 
noon  —  it  was  Palm  Sunday  —  at  Appomattox  the 
end  came. 

Meanwhile,  Davis  with  his  Cabinet  had  gone  to 
Greensboro,  North  Carolina,  to  be  near  Johnston  and 
Beauregard.  Young  Robert  E.  Lee,  who  had  been 
cut  off  in  the  retreat,  had  made  his  way  thither  and 
was  in  the  room  with  Davis  when  the  official  despatch 
announcing  his  father's  surrender  was  received.  In 
his  " Recollections "  of  his  father  young  Lee  says: 
"  After  reading  it  he  [Davis]  handed  it  without  com 
ment  to  us;  then  turning  away,  he  silently  wept 
bitter  tears." 

Jehovah!  Designer  of  the  starry  firmament,  this 
green  world  and  human  nature,  that  fountain  which 
begins  to  play  when  what  we  dearly  love  is  gone 
forever  seems  to  testify  to  your  live  and  daily  com 
passion  for  us  poor  mortals! 

That  night  Davis  having  sent  word  that  he  wanted 
to  see  them,  Johnston  and  Beauregard  came  to  his 
room  where  he  and  his  Cabinet  were  assembled. 
"I  have  requested  you,"  so  writes  his  Secretary  of 
the  Navy,  Mallory,  "to  join  us  this  evening  that  we 
might  have  the  benefit  of  your  views  upon  the  situa 
tion  of  the  country.  Of  course,  we  all  feel  the  magni 
tude  of  the  moment.  Our  late  disasters  are  terrible, 


234  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

but  I  do  not  think  we  should  regard  them  as  fatal. 
I  think  we  can  whip  the  enemy  yet  if  our  people 
will  turn  out;  we  must  look  at  the  matter  calmly, 
however,  and  see  what  there  is  left  for  us  to  do." 
He  then  turned  to  Johnston,  saying:  "We  should 
like  to  hear  your  views,  General  Johnston."  John 
ston  blurted  out:  "My  views  are,  Sir,  that  our  people 
are  tired  of  the  war,  feel  themselves  whipped  and 
will  not  fight,"  and  went  on  to  say  that  the  men 
were  deserting  in  large  numbers,  and  suggested  that 
terms  for  surrender  should  be  asked  for.  Davis, 
meanwhile,  was  folding  and  unfolding  a  bit  of 
paper,  and  then  turned  to  Beauregard  for  his  views, 
who  replied  that  he  concurred  in  all  that  Johnston 
had  said.  Then  followed  a  silence,  Davis'  eyes  still 
on  the  bit  of  paper  he  was  folding  and  refolding.  At 
last,  without  a  sign  of  impatience  either  in  his 
manner  or  the  expression  of  his  face  or  tone,  he 
asked  Johnston  if  he  thought  Sherman  would  give 
terms  and  if  so,  to  proceed,  adding:  "If  we  can 
accomplish  any  good  for  the  country,  Heaven 
knows  I  am  not  particular  as  to  forms."  As  we  all 
know,  Johnston  accepted  Sherman's  terms  and 
surrendered  his  army. 

While  these  negotiations  were  going  on  Davis 
went  to  Salisbury,  North  Carolina,  accepting  the 
hospitality  of  an  Episcopal  clergyman.  One  morning 
while  at  breakfast  the  clergyman's  little  daughter, 
seven  or  eight  years  old,  came  in  crying,  "Oh, 


HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY  235 

Papa!  old  Lincoln's  coming  and  going  to  kill  us  all." 
Mr.  Davis  laid  down  his  knife  and  fork,  placed  his 
hand  on  the  little  girl's  head  and  turning  it  around 
toward  him  said,  looking  into  her  face:  "Oh,  no, 
my  little  lady,  you  need  not  fear  that;  Mr.  Lincoln 
is  not  such  a  bad  man  as  that;  he  does  not  want  to 
kill  anybody  and  certainly  not  a  little  girl  like  you." 

A  few  days  after  came  a  rumor  of  Mr.  Lincoln's 
assassination  but  Davis  doubted  its  truthfulness, 
observing,  however,  that  in  such  a  condition  of  public 
affairs  a  crime  of  that  kind  might  be  perpetrated. 
When  the  news  was  confirmed,  Mallory  reports  him 
as  saying:  "I  certainly  had  no  special  regard  for  Mr. 
Lincoln,  but  there  are  a  great  many  men  of  whose 
end  I  would  much  rather  hear  than  his.  I  fear  it  will 
be  disastrous  to  our  people,  and  I  regret  it  deeply." 

Upon  hearing  the  unconditional  surrender  of 
Johnston's  and  Beauregard's  army,  Davis  set  out  to 
join  the  forces  still  in  the  field  beyond  the  Mississippi. 
The  specie  that  was  in  the  Confederate  treasury, 
amounting  to  several  hundred  thousand  dollars,  was 
transferred  from  the  railway  box  cars  into  army 
wagons  and,  guarded  by  detachments  of  Wheeler's 
cavalry,  the  march  began.  With  Davis  rode  Mal 
lory,  Reagan,  Benjamin  and  Breckinridge  of  his 
Cabinet.  They  crossed  the  Savannah  River  on  the 
fourth  of  May;  Davis,  Mallory  and  Reagan  accom 
panied  by  Captain  Campbell's  company  of  cavalry, 
pushed  on  to  Washington,  Georgia. 


236  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

The  main  body  of  the  escort  and  train  of  wagons, 
all  under  command  of  Secretary  of  War  Breckin- 
ridge,  at  last  gathered  into  camp  on  the  Georgia  side 
of  the  river.  The  members  of  the  escort  who  had 
left  their  homes  behind  them  and,  hopeless  of  any 
revival  of  the  war  spirit,  now  turned  insurbordinate, 
practically  demanded  a  distribution  of  the  specie 
they  were  guarding.  After  Breckinridge  had  reported 
this  state  of  affairs  to  Davis  the  treasury  was  divided, 
the  troops  then  disappeared,  and  Breckinridge  and 
Benjamin  struck  off  for  the  Florida  coast  and  finally 
reached  England. 

On  arrival  at  the  little  village  of  Washington,  the 
doors  of  a  private  house  were  thrown  open  to  Davis 
and  the  next  day  the  last  Cabinet  meeting  of  the 
Confederacy  was  held.  Mallory  bade  goodbye  to  his 
chief;  Davis  then  with  Reagan  and  four  or  five  of  his 
personal  staff  set  out  for  southwestern  Georgia. 
Before  starting  he  had  a  conference  with  Captain 
Campbell,  telling  him  of  his  plans  and  relieving  him 
of  all  obligations  to  go  any  farther,  but  that  he  would 
like  to  have  ten  volunteers  to  go  with  him  if  they 
felt  like  doing  so;  Campbell  on  notifying  his  men 
of  this  request  reported  that  the  whole  company 
volunteered.  Davis  selected  ten  of  .the  big-hearted 
company,  joining  after  a  march  of  two  or  three 
days  Mrs.  Davis,  her  sister  Miss  Howell,  the  chil 
dren  and  servants,  who  under  the  immediate  charge  of 
the  President's  private  secretary,  Burton  Harrison, 


HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY  237 

and  an  escort  of  a  few  paroled  Confederate  soldiers, 
had  started  on  their  travels  several  weeks  previously. 

On  the  evening  of  the  second  day  after  overtaking 
them  and  while  preparations  were  being  made  to 
leave  at  daybreak  and  continue  the  journey,  one  of 
Davis'  aides,  Colonel  Preston,  who  had  been  to  a 
neighboring  village,  reported  that  it  was  rumored  a 
band  of  marauders  would  attack  the  camp  that 
night.  About  daybreak,  hearing  firing,  Davis  sprang 
to  his  feet  and  going  out  saw  that  regular  soldiers 
and  not  bandits  were  making  the  attack;  he  went 
back  to  the  tent  to  notify  Mrs.  Davis.  He  picked  up 
and  put  on  Mrs.  Davis'  raglan,  mistaking  it  in  the 
dark  for  his  light  overcoat,  and  as  he  went  out  Mrs. 
Davis  threw  her  shawl  over  his  head  as  a  disguise. 
He  had  advanced  but  a  few  steps  when  a  mounted 
soldier,  after  some  angry  words  from  Davis,  presented 
his  carbine  and  ordered  him  to  halt.  Mrs.  Davis 
rushed  out  and  threw  her  arms  about  his  neck  and 
begged  the  soldier  not  to  kill  him.  Seeing  now  all 
hope  of  escape  gone,  he  quietly  turned  back  and 
seated  himself  on  a  fallen  tree  near  the  dying-down 
camp  fire  till  the  commanding  officer  of  the  troops, 
Col.  Pritchard,  came  up,  demanding  his  name  and 
surrender. 

A  correspondent  of  lively  imagination,  who  was 
not  present  at  the  capture,  at  once  telegraphed  his 
paper  from  Macon  that  Davis  had  been  taken,  and 
in  women's  clothes.  Thereupon  the  cartoonist  seized 


238  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

his  pad,  and  then  his  pencil  pictured  Davis  accord 
ingly,  much  to  the  exuberant  amusement  and 
delight  of  his  enemies.  But  in  time,  as  usual,  truth 
made  its  way,  and  the  cartoonist's  testimony  was 
ruled  out,  and  now  in  the  periodicals  of  the  past 
they  lie  petrified,  so  to  speak,  like  the  bones  of  the 
Saurians  of  the  carboniferous  period. 

While  on  his  way  to  Macon  to  be  delivered  to 
General  Wilson,  whose  troops  had  made  the  capture, 
he  learned  that  a  reward  of  one  hundred  thousand 
dollars  had  been  offered  for  his  arrest  by  President 
Johnson,  charging  him,  Stephens,  Clay  and  others 
with  complicity  in  the  assassination  of  Mr.  Lincoln. 
He  was  amazed  and  indignant. 

On  his  arrival  at  Macon,  some  troops  drawn  up 
before  Wilson's  headquarters  saluted  him  as  he 
passed  through  their  ranks  to  the  door  of  Wilson's 
hotel.  Wilson  treated  him  well;  and  in  the  course  of 
an  extended  interview  with  him  referred  to  the 
President's  proclamation  for  his  arrest,  when  Davis 
replied:  "The  man  who  signed  that  proclamation 
knew  that  I  would  a  thousand  times  rather  have 
Abraham  Lincoln  to  deal  with  as  President  of  the 
United  States  than  to  have  him." 

Wilson,  who  had  been  at  West  Point  as  a  cadet 
while  Davis  was  Secretary  of  War  and  Senator,  says 
that  in  his  long  talk  with  Davis  that,  however  petu 
lant  he  may  have  been  at  the  time  of  his  capture, 
he  had  regained  complete  equanimity  and  inquired 


HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY  239 

most  kindly  of  his  old  friends  in  the  West  Point 
faculty  —  Church,  Bartlett  and  Mahan  —  and  that 
he  spoke  unreservedly  and  feelingly  of  Lee,  declar 
ing  him  to  be  the  ablest,  most  courageous,  most 
aggressive  and  most  beloved  of  all  the  Confederate 
generals,  and  that  he  referred  to  Mr.  Lincoln  and 
his  untimely  death  in  terms  of  respect  and  kindness. 

At  the  close  of  the  day  Wilson  started  Davis  and 
all  his  party  on  a  special  train  for  Augusta.  Mrs. 
Clay  of  Alabama,  whose  husband  was  included  in 
the  proclamation  as  one  of  the  conspirators  and  had 
given  himself  up  conscious  of  his  innocence,  says  that 
as  she  entered  the  car  Davis  embraced  her,  saying, 
"This  is  a  sad  meeting,  Jennie!"  and  offered  her  a 
seat  beside  him.  At  Augusta,  they  with  Vice- 
President  Stephens,  General  Wheeler  and  his  adju 
tant-general,  were  packed  in  a  miserable  river  boat, 
which  took  them  down  the  river  and  around  to 
Hilton  Head  where  they  were  transferred  to  the 
steamer  Clyde,  which  soon  sailed  accompanied  by  the 
war  vessel  Tuscarora  with  shotted  guns  for  Fort 
Monroe.  Before  sailing  Mrs.  Davis  sent  a  note  to 
General  Saxton  in  command  at  Hilton  Head,  asking 
him,  as  an  old  friend,  if  he  would  not  take  her  little 
negro  protege  Jim  Brooks  and  see  to  his  education 
and  welfare. 

Jim,  left  an  orphan  in  babyhood,  Ellen,  Mrs.  Davis' 
maid,  had  been  a  second  mother  to  him,  and  being 
about  Jeff  Junior's,  age,  they  had  been  playmates 


240  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

from  the  cradle.  Shortly  before  the  Clyde  sailed,  a 
boat  from  Saxton  came  along  side  and  by  strategem, 
he  was  induced  to  go  aboard  of  her,  and  as  she  backed 
off,  realizing  what  it  meant,  he  screamed  pitifully. 
His  playmate,  Willie,  Ellen  and  all  cried  bitterly  as 
they  steamed  away  from  the  heartbroken,  mother 
less  little  fellow. 

Two  days  afterward  the  Tuscarora,  her  flag  flying, 
turned  in  round  Cape  Charles  with  the  Clyde,  and 
crossing  the  sunshiny  bay,  anchored  off  Fort  Monroe. 
There  she  lay  swinging  with  the  tide  by  her  convoy, 
while  brick-masons,  blacksmiths,  and  carpenters, 
walled  up  openings,  made  heavy  doors,  and  placed 
iron  bars  in  the  embrasures  of  the  casemates  that 
were  to  serve  as  prisons  for  Clay  and  Davis.  Mean 
while,  Stephens  and  Reagan  were  started  for  Fort 
Warren,  Boston  Harbor;  Wheeler  and  Davis'  staff 
to  Fort  Delaware;  and  Burton  Harrison,  his  private 
secretary,  to  Fort  McHenry  at  Baltimore. 

General  Miles,  who  had  been  assigned  to  the  com 
mand  of  the  Fort,  at  one  p.m.  of  the  twenty-second, 
set  off  in  a  tug  accompanied  by  a  squad  of  soldiers, 
for  the  Clyde.  Davis  bade  goodbye  to  his  children 
who  were  crying,  but  on  taking  leave  of  his  wife 
whispered:  "Try  not  to  weep,  they  will  gloat  over 
your  grief."  On  landing  at  the  wharf,  Miles,  holding 
Davis  by  the  right  arm  and  preceded  by  a  cavalry 
detail,  first  appeared;  behind  him  was  a  half-dozen 
soldiers,  then  came  Colonel  Pritchard,  holding  Clay 


HIS  LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  241 

by  the  right  arm,  followed  by  another  armed  squad. 
The  procession  crossed  the  moat,  passed  through  the 
postern,  and  then  to  the  casemate.  Assistant  Secre 
tary  of  War  Dana,  who  with  Halleck  overlooked  the 
procession,  says:  " Davis  bore  himself  with  a  haughty 
attitude." — This  reminds  me  of  a  remark  he  made  to 
one  of  his  prominent  officers  in  Richmond  who  had 
just  had  an  interview  with  a  distressed  poor  woman 
and  had  to  bring  the  matter  to  Davis'  attention,  he 
said  to  him:  " Never  be  haughty  to  the  humble,  nor 
humble  to  the  haughty."--  Davis  was  conducted  into 
the  inner  room  of  the  casemate.  There  was  a  sentry 
before  each  door  leading  into  the  outer  room,  an 
iron  hospital  bedstead,  a  stool  table,  a  chair,  a 
movable  stool  closet,  and  a  Bible;  two  sentinels 
outside  the  doors,  an  officer  and  two  sentries  in  the 
outer  room  with  instructions  to  see  the  prisoner  every 
fifteen  minutes,  the  outer  door  of  all  locked  and  key 
in  charge  of  the  officer  of  the  guard ;  a  line  of  sentries 
to  cut  off  all  access  to  the  casemate,  another  line 
beyond  the  moat  and  another  on  top  of  the  parapet 
over  the  casemate;  and  yet,  with  all  these  precautions 
they  put  manacles  on  him! 

Davis,  left  alone,  walked  to  the  barred  embrasure 
and  asked  the  direction  it  faced;  neither  of  the  two 
sentinels  would  answer;  he  sat  down.  And  this  was 
the  Fort  Monroe  whose  guns  had  thundered  for 
him  when  Secretary  of  War  and  whose  troops  had 
saluted  with  arms  and  colors  —  colors  that  had 


242  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

waved  over  him  as  a  Cadet  and  that  he  had  helped 
to  carry  to  victory  at  Monterey  and  Buena  Vista. 

That  afternoon,  Dana,  notifying  the  War  Depart 
ment  of  Davis'  and  Clay's  incarceration,  said,  "I 
have  not  given  orders  to  have  them  placed  in  irons, 
as  Halleck  seemed  opposed  to  it,  but  General  Miles 
is  instructed  to  have  fetters  ready  if  he  thinks  them 
necessary."  Two  days  afterward,  Miles  reported 
to  Dana,  "  Yesterday  I  directed  the  irons  to  be  put 
on  Davis'  ankles,  which  he  violently  resisted,  but 
he  became  more  quiet  afterward.  His  hands  are 
unencumbered." 

The  following  day  Davis,  as  well  as  Clay,  asked 
if  beside  the  Bible  they  might  have  the  Prayer  Book 
and  some  tobacco.  Miles  referred  the  request  to 
Halleck  who  answered  "Yes."  Tobacco,  delicious 
weed,  and  my  comforter  on  many  a  page  of  this 
biography,  you  were  in  mighty  good  company  that 
night  —  the  Prayer  Book  and  the  Bible. 

Meanwhile  Mrs.  Davis,  the  children,  and  Mrs. 
Clay,  after  being  searched  and  their  baggage  thor 
oughly  examined  for  evidence  of  their  husbands' 
alleged  crimes,  were  on  their  way  to  Savannah  aboard 
the  Clyde  in  charge  of  an  officer  who  treated  them 
well. 

The  manacles  began  to  chafe  Davis'  ankles,  and 
the  cruelty  of  it  all  got  wing  through  the  reporters' 
accounts  from  Fort  Monroe,  furnishing  afternoon 
editions  with  startling  headlines.  Stanton  translated 


HIS   LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  243 

the  deep  headlines  as  reproach  and  telegraphed 
Miles,  "  Please  report  whether  irons  have  or  have 
not  been  placed  on  Jefferson  Davis.  If  they  have, 
when  was  it  done  and  for  what  reason,  and  remove 
them."  Miles  replied:  "I  directed  that  anklets  be 
put  on  his  ankles,  which  would  not  interfere  with 
his  walking  but  would  prevent  his  running  should 
he  endeavor  to  escape.  In  the  meantime  I  have 
changed  the  wooden  doors  for  grated  iron  ones  with 
locks,  arid  the  anklets  have  been  removed." 

For  one  hundred  and  ten  nights  with  two  soldiers, 
a  bright  light  in  his  room,  two  sentinels  in  the 
adjoining  room  walking  their  posts  and  relieved 
every  two  hours  with  rattling  of  arms  on  the  brick 
floors;  the  trailing  sabre  of  the  officer  of  the  guard 
who,  beside  looking  after  posting  the  reliefs,  had  to 
take  a  look  at  the  prisoner  every  fifteen  minutes, 
how  much  unbroken  sleep  did  or  could  a  night  offer? 

His  food  was  sent  in,  but  neither  knife  or  fork 
allowed  for  fear  he  might  cut  his  throat  or  puncture 
a  vein  and  cheat  the  gallows.  The  glaring  light  on 
his  eye  which  had  never  quite  recovered  from  the 
attack  that  had  destroyed  the  other,  keyed  as  he 
was,  was  intense.  In  knowing  what  we  do  now,  the 
question  might  be  put  in  all  earnestness,  Why  did 
he  have  to  suffer  as  he  did? 

It  is  only  fair  in  behalf  of  Miles,  Stanton,  and 
Judge  Advocate-General  Holt  who  had  to  deal 
with  Davis  officially,  to  say  that  no  one  not  living 


244  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

at  the  time  can  conceive  of  the  depth  of  the  passion 
over  the  assassination  of  Lincoln  and  the  barbarous 
attempt  on  the  life  of  Seward.  Convulsion  after 
convulsion  of  feeling  took  place  all  over  the  North, 
attributing  the  crime  to  the  South,  and  especially 
laying  it  at  the  door  of  its  leaders  and  calling  for 
their  execution  as  traitors  and  murderers.  Sumner 
in  the  midst  of  this  frenzy  wrote  to  a  friend  in 
England:  "You  enjoy  the  overthrow  of  belligerent 
slavery.  In  assassinating  our  good  President  it 
acted  naturally,  logically  and  consistently,  and  yet 
there  are  foreigners  here  who  are  astonished  that 
Jefferson  Davis  can  be  thought  guilty  of  such  an 
atrocity."  This  letter  fairly  represented  how  passion, 
like  a  forest  fire  before  a  high  wind,  was  sweeping 
the  country. 

Moreover,  while  Davis  and  Clay  were  waiting 
on  the  Clyde  till  the  casemates  were  made  ready 
the  Military  Commission  for  the  trial  of  the  assassi 
nators  was  in  session,  the  newspapers  filling  column 
after  column  with  the  testimony  and  vivid  descrip 
tions  of  the  criminals,  all  of  which  the  public  read 
with  deepening  horror. 

Again,  among  the  earliest  witnesses  was  a  shrewd, 
impecunious  lawyer,  Conover  by  name,  who  testified 
early  in  the  trial  that  Davis  and  Clay,  from  his  own 
knowledge,  were  implicated  in  bringing  about  the 
assassination.  Later  he  went  to  Holt,  the  Judge 
Advocate-General  and  told  him  he  could  furnish 


HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY  245 

evidence,  written  and  verbal,  to  establish  the  truth 
of  his  testimony  before  the  Commission.  Holt 
believed  him,  and  Conover  began  at  once  to  organize 
a  gang  of  perjurers  who  supplied  Holt  with  sworn 
depositions  confirming  his  allegations.  Holt  laid 
these  depositions  before  Stanton;  he  also  believed 
them  true  and  it  was  not  until  eleven  months  later, 
that,  upon  the  confession  of  one  of  this  gang,  the 
discovery  was  made  of  the  utter  fraud  which  Conover 
had  perpetrated.  While  this  testimony  remained 
unchallenged,  and  the  fires  kindled  by  the  assassi 
nation  of  Lincoln  still  burning  fiercely,  it  is  only  fair 
to  Stanton,  Miles  and  Holt  to  bear  these  circum 
stances  in  mind.  Not  to  have  been  influenced  by 
them  in  dealing  with  Davis  and  Clay  is  more  than 
can  be  expected  of  human  nature. 

Contributing  to  the  harshness  of  Davis'  treatment 
and  above  all  to  root  deeply  a  calloused  unfavorable 
opinion,  during  the  trial  of  Wirtz,  the  prosecuting 
attorney  from  the  Bureau  of  Military  Justice  offered 
testimony  to  prove  that  Davis  was  as  much,  if  not 
more,  to  blame  than  Wirtz  for  the  cruelties  and 
deaths  at  Anderson ville. 

The  trial  began  on  the  twenty-third  of  August 
and  Wirtz  was  executed  on  the  tenth  of  November. 
On  the  night  before  his  execution  two  men  sought 
an  interview  with  him  in  his  cell  and  one  of  them 
gave  him  to  understand  that  by  a  confession  impli 
cating  Davis  with  the  responsibility  of  the  treatment 


246  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

of  prisoners,  they  had  power  to  save  him  from  the 
gallows.  That  same  night  his  counsel,  a  Mr.  Schade 
of  Washington,  says:  "Some  parties  came  to  the 
confessor  of  Wirtz,  Reverend  Father  Boyle,  and 
also  to  me  as  his  counsel,  one  of  them  informing  me 
that  a  high  Cabinet  officer  wished  to  assure  Wirtz 
that  if  he  would  implicate  Davis  with  the  atrocities 
committed  at  Andersonville,  his  sentence  would  be 
commuted.  The  messenger  requested  me  to  inform 
Wirtz  of  this.  In  presence  of  Father  Boyle,  I  told 
Wirtz  next  morning  what  had  happened.  Captain 
Wirtz  simply  and  quietly  replied,  'Mr.  Schade,  you 
know  that  I  have  always  told  you  that  I  do  not 
know  anything  about  Jefferson  Davis.  He  had  no 
connection  with  me  as  to  what  was  done  at  Anderson 
ville.  I  would  not  become  a  traitor  to  him  or  any 
one  else  even  to  save  my  life'." 

This  statement  of  Wirtz'  counsel  is  confirmed  by 
a  letter  to  Mr.  Davis  from  Father  Boyle.  "I  know 
that  on  the  evening  of  the  day  before  the  execution 
of  Major  Wirtz,  a  man  visited  me  on  the  part  of  a 
Cabinet  officer  to  inform  me  that  Major  Wirtz 
would  be  pardoned  if  he  would  implicate  Jefferson 
Davis  in  the  cruelties  of  Andersonville." 

Wirtz,  his  counsel,  and  Father  Boyle  are  in  the 
grave.  No  one  to  this  day  knows  the  name  of  the 
Cabinet  officer  or  the  mysterious  messenger  who 
under  the  shades  of  night  made  his  way  to  and  from 
Wirtz'  cell.  It  was  all  a  horrible,  horrible  business, 


HIS  LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  247 

and  we  think  a  November  night's  stars  never  looked 
down  on  a  wickeder  one. 

Relative  to  the  charges  against  Davis  of  cruelty 
to  prisoners,  it  is  opportune  to  say  that  Mrs.  Davis 
having  appealed  to  Horace  Greely  and  he  realizing, 
through  the  sensitiveness  of  his  nature  what  Davis, 
guilty  or  innocent,  must  be  suffering  in  prison, 
asked  Judge  Shea  of  New  York,  if  he  would  not 
try  to  secure  an  early  trial  for  Davis.  Shea  was 
unwilling  to  give  his  professional  services  unless 
satisfied  that  the  charge  against  him  of  famine  and 
cruelty  to  Northern  prisoners  was  untrue. 

It  so  happened  that  the  Confederate  archives 
were  in  Canada,  and  at  the  request  of  Greely, 
Governor  Andrew  and  Vice-President  Wilson  Shea 
went  to  Montreal  and  there  examined  the  records. 
He  returned  to  New  York  convinced  that  Davis, 
directly  and  indirectly,  was  guiltless  of  indifference 
to  the  welfare  of  prisoners  that  fell  into  Confederate 
hands.  Whereupon  Greely  threw  his  whole  heart 
into  an  effort  to  secure  a  trial  at  once,  let  the  charges 
be  what  they  might,  for  as  an  American  citizen, 
Davis  was  entitled  to  a  speedy  trial.  O'Connor  of 
New  York  had  already  volunteered  his  services, 
and  from  then  on  to  the  end  became  the  fearless 
legal  champion  for  Davis.  When  Conover's  malicious 
charges  were  exposed  and  one  after  another  of  the 
real  facts  became  known,  a  reaction  set  in,  and 
President  Johnson  said  in  an  interview  with  Mrs. 


248  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

Davis  that  he  was  satisfied  that  Davis  was  not  a 
party  to  the  assassination  of  Lincoln.  So  much  then 
as  to  the  intensity  of  public  feeling  and  its  reaction 
on  Stanton  and  Holt  who  had  to  deal  officially  with 
the  character  of  Davis'  imprisonment  at  its  beginning. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  the  Secretary  of  War 
in  a  somewhat  peremptory  despatch  ordered  General 
Miles  to  unshackle  Davis.  The  order  was  executed 
on  the  forenoon  of  a  Sunday,  May  28,  and  in  the 
afternoon  Dr.  Craven,  who  had  been  assigned  to 
look  after  the  health  of  Davis  and  Clay,  went  to 
his  casemate.  "  Immediately  on  entering,"  says 
Craven  in  his  " Prison  Life  of  Davis,"  "Mr.  Davis 
rose  from  his  seat,  both  hands  extended  and  his 
eyes  filled  with  tears.  He  was  evidently  about  to 
say  something,  but  checked  himself;  or,  was  checked 
by  a  rush  of  emotion,  and  sat  down  on  his  bed." 

A  month  later  General  Miles  entered  the  casemate 
while  the  doctor  was  making  his  professional  call 
and  announced  that  Davis  would  be  allowed  an 
hour's  exercise  on  the  ramparts;  and  that  afternoon, 
General  Miles  supporting  him  on  one  side  and  the 
officer  of  the  day  on  the  other,  followed  by  four 
armed  guards,  he  enjoyed  his  first  breath  of  open 
air  and  the  sight  from  the  green  parapets  of  the 
coming  and  going  ships,  the  low,  distant,  dreaming 
coast  line  and  the  wide  expanse  of  softly  heaving  sea. 

On  one  of  these  walks  he  met  Clay  and  exchanged 
greetings  in  French  with  him,  which  alarmed  the 


HIS   LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  249 

guard  who  did  not  understand  the  language,  and 
they  were  not  allowed  to  pass  each  other  or  meet 
again.  Davis,  struck  with  Clay's  appearance, 
inquired  with  much  sympathy  for  his  fellow-prisoner, 
and  Dr.  Craven  says  this:  "Let  me  here  remark 
that  despite  a  certain  exterior  cynicism  of  manner, 
no  patient  has  ever  crossed  my  path  who,  suffering 
so  much  himself,  appeared  to  feel  so  warmly  and 
tenderly  for  others." 

President  Johnson,  to  satisfy  himself  as  to  Davis' 
condition  and  treatment,  sent  McCulloch,  his 
Secretary  of  Treasury,  to  Fort  Monroe  to  see  Davis. 
McCulloch  says:  "I  was  most  favorably  impressed 
by  his  manners  and  conversation,  .  .  .  hearing 
Davis'  account  of  his  treatment,  I  felt  as  he  did  that 
for  a  time  he  had  been  dastardly  treated  ...  he 
had  the  bearing  of  a  born  and  high-bred  gentleman." 

Says  Craven,  '  I  called  with  Captain  Evans,  officer 
of  the  day,  on  the  twenty-eighth  of  August.  Davis 
was  then  suffering  great  prostration  from  erysipelas 
and  a  carbuncle,  and  was  in  low  spirits,  —  fearing 
that  he  should  die  without  opportunity  of  rebutting 
in  public  trial  the  imputed  stigma  of  having  had  a 
share  in  the  conspiracy  to  assassinate  Mr.  Lincoln 
and  leave  the  reproach  on  his  children. 

"Of  Mr.  Lincoln  he  then  spoke,  not  in  affected 
terms  of  regard  and  admiration,  but  paying  a  simple 
and  sincere  tribute  to  his  goodness  of  character  and 
honesty  of  purpose  .  .  .  also  to  his  official  purity 


250  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

and  freedom  from  avarice  .  .  .  that  the  Southern 
papers  in  the  beginning  of  the  war  had  labored  to 
render  Lincoln  abhorrent  and  contemptible,  but 
that  such  efforts  were  against  his  judgment." 

"They  charge  me  with  crime,  Doctor,  but  God 
knows  my  innocence.  I  endorsed  no  measure  that 
was  not  justified  by  the  laws  of  war.  Failure  is  all 
forms  of  guilt  in  one  to  men  who  occupied  my  posi 
tion.  Should  I  die,  repeat  this  for  the  sake  of  my 
people,  my  dear  wife,  and  my  poor  darling  children. 
Tell  the  world  I  only  loved  America,  and  that  in 
following  my  State,  I  was  only  carrying  out  doctrines 
received  from  revered  lips  in  my  early  youth  and 
adopted  by  my  judgment  as  the  conviction  of  riper 
years." 

Vice-President  Stephens  and  Reagan,  Postmaster- 
General  in  Davis'  Cabinet,  were  released  on  parole 
in  October,  and  Clay  a  few  months  later. 

In  the  spring  of  1866,  Congress  appointed  a 
committee,  headed  by  Boutwell  of  Massachusetts, 
to  report  on  the  facts  in  Davis'  case,  and  recommend 
his  trial  by  a  Commission  or  the  Courts.  The  War 
Department  turned  over  all  the  evidence  it  had 
to  the  Committee,  who  in  turn  put  it  into  the  hands 
of  Lieber,  the  sun  of  whose  fame  as  a  writer,  scholar, 
jurist,  has  not  yet  set.  Lieber  says,  among  other 
things,  that  the  Judiciary  Committee  had  asked  him 
to  report  upon  whether  or  not  there  was  any  evidence 
that  Jefferson  Davis  or  the  Richmond  government 


HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY  251 

knew  about  the  assassination  plots,  and  whether  or 
not  there  was  any  circumstantial  evidence  confirming 
things  that  appeared  in  the  trials  of  Lincoln's 
assassins.  "  Some  270,000  letters  have  been  examined 
for  this  and  other  purposes.  There  remain  about 
60,000  more  to  be  examined  and  verified  .  .  .  Davis 
will  not  be  found  guilty  and  we  shall  stand  there 
completely  beaten." 

Meanwhile  Davis'  counsel  were  pushing  more  and 
more  ardently  for  a  trial  and  at  last  a  day  was  set, 
and  on  the  tenth  orders  were  issued  directing  General 
Burton,  Miles  successor,  to  produce  his  prisoner 
before  the  United  States  District  Court  in  Richmond, 
on  Monday,  May  13. 

During  the  week  of  the  tenth,  two  events  took 
place  worthy  of  record,  —  Ex-President  Pierce  made 
a  visit  to  Davis  and  we  can  easily  imagine  their 
greeting,  for  they  loved  each  other  well;  they  had 
not  only  shared  the  dangers  of  battle  fields  in  Mexico, 
but  also  four  years  of  trying  official  relations  as 
President  and  Cabinet  officer. 

The  other  event  was  the  marriage  of  Ellen,  Mrs, 
Davis'  maid,  and  Frederick  Maginnis,  of  whom 
Mrs.  Davis  says,  "a  colored  man,  a  courteous, 
refined  gentleman  in  his  instincts."  He  had  offered 
his  services  gratuitously  to  Mrs.  Davis  on  her 
arrival  at  Savannah  from  Fort  Monroe,  but  she 
paid  him  wages  regularly,  which  he  divided  with 
his  old  mistress  in  Georgia.  "He  was  a  second 


252  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

Providence  to  us  by  his  care  of  Mr.  Davis  after  I 
was  allowed  to  go  to  him/'  says  Mrs.  Davis. 

On  one  occasion  when  asked  by  a  curious  woman 
who  had  made  an  excursion  to  the  Fort  the  where 
abouts  of  "Jeff"  he  answered,  with  a  bow,  "I  am 
sorry,  Madam,  not  to  be  able  to  tell  you  where  he  is. 
I  do  not  know  such  a  person."  "Are  you  not  his 
servant? "  she  inquired.  "No,  Madam,"  he  answered, 
"you  are  quite  mistaken,  I  have  the  honor  to  serve 
Ex-President  Davis."  "What  this  judicious,  cap 
able,  delicate-minded  man  did  for  us  could  not  be 
computed  in  money  or  told  in  words;  he  and  his 
gentle  wife  took  the  sting  out  of  many  indignities 
offered  to  us  in  our  misfortune.  They  were  both 
objects  of  affection  and  esteem  to  Mr.  Davis  as 
long  as  he  lived,"  so  says  Mrs.  Davis. 

On  Friday,  May  11,  the  United  States  Marshal 
accompanied  by  Judge  Ould  gave  General  Burton 
the  order  of  the  War  Department  to  bring  Davis 
before  the  Court  in  Richmond.  Saturday  morning, 
Davis,  arrayed  in  a  mixed  black  suit,  bade  good-bye 
to  the  officers  of  the  garrison  and  then,  with  Mrs. 
Davis,  General  Burton,  Dr.  Craven,  and  Burton 
Harrison,  his  affectionate  private  secretary,  boarded 
the  John  Sylvester  and  started  up  the  James,  and 
the  green  parapets  of  Fort  Monroe,  where  for  just 
eight  days  short  of  two  years  he  had  been  confined, 
faded  away  with  their  over-streaming  colors.  When 
the  boat  reached  Brandon  Landing  the  Misses 


HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY  253 

Harrison  came  aboard,  greeting  Davis  with  swim 
ming  eyes.  They  arrived  at  Richmond  about  six 
o'clock  and  the  party  drove  to  the  Spottswood 
Hotel,  and  at  every  doorway  and  window  on  the 
way  were  smiling  faces  wafting  welcome  home  again. 
The  street  was  packed  in  front  of  the  hotel,  and 
when  he  and  Mrs.  Davis  got  out  of  the  carriages, 
some  one  shouted  "Hats  off,  Virginians!"  He  was 
assigned  to  the  very  same  rooms  that  he  had  occupied 
on  arrival  from  Montgomery  six  years  before.  There 
were  flowers  there  to  welcome  him  and  old  friends 
came  in,  their  faces  blooming  with  a  deep  joy,  tears 
hanging  on  their  lashes  or  sparkling  there  as  we 
sometimes  see  the  gathered  dew  in  the  early  morning. 
The  next  day,  Sunday,  he  stayed  in  his  rooms, 
receiving  callers  who  came  in  on  the  way  from 
church. 

At  eleven  o'clock  Monday,  he  was  taken  to  the 
court  room  in  the  Custom  House,  a  room  about 
forty  feet  square  —  and  already  every  seat  was 
filled,  while  outside  were  great  crowds  of  white  and 
black.  Davis  was  first  placed  in  the  prisoner's  dock, 
and  the  Marshal,  with  fine  feeling,  asked  Harrison 
to  go  and  sit  beside  him.  Later  the  courtesy  was 
extended  by  conducting  him  to  the  counsel's  table 
within  the  bar  to  a  seat  beside  O'Connor,  a  smallish 
man  with  thin  gray  hair,  brilliant  eyes  and  a  firm 
but  low  voice.  By  his  side  sat  Reed  of  Philadelphia, 
Judge  Shea,  Ould  and  Beverly  Tucker  of  Virginia. 


254  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

On  the  other  side  of  the  table  sat  Evarts,  spare, 
pale  and  grave,  Chandler  and  Wells  representing 
the  United  States. 

There  was  a  sensation  when  an  elderly  man  wear 
ing  glasses  and  dressed  in  an  antiquated  black  suit, 
his  black  silk  cravat  in  wild  entanglement,  and 
totally  unselfconscious  of  place  or  occasion,  walked 
up  and  took  a  seat  beside  Evarts.  He  brought  in 
an  atmosphere  of  natural  gentleness  with  him.  It 
was  Horace  Greely  who  had  done  more  than  any 
man  living  to  arouse  his  countrymen  against  slavery 
and  who  was  the  first  to  ask  for  mercy  to  Davis  and 
every  Southerner  who  had  borne  arms  in  behalf  of 
the  Confederacy. 

And  may  I  at  this  point  say  that  were  I  to  his 
torically  duplicate  .the  Constellation  of  Orion,  I 
should  put  Lincoln  for  the  upper  star,  Davis  the 
lower,  Grant,  Greely  and  Lee  in  the  belt. 

With  Greely  came  in  Augustus  Schell  of  New  York, 
with  a  benevolent  face  —  a  life-long  Democrat, 
representing  himself  and  Vanderbilt  on  the  bail 
bond  of  $100,000  which  it  was  understood  would 
be  called  for  in  case  of  Davis'  release  for  future 
trial. 

Presently  the  judge,  Underwood,  entered  from 
the  lobby,  whereupon  the  Marshal  cried  out,  "Hear 
ye,  hear  ye!  The  United  States  District  Court  is 
now  opened  and  silence  is  commanded.  God  save 
the  United  States!" 


HIS   LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  255 

Burton  then  brought  Davis  before  the  Court  and 
reading  the  order  he  had  received,,  the  Marshal  took 
charge  of  the  accused,  who  then  took  a  seat  beside 
O'Connor. 

The  Judge  proceeded  to  deliver  a  lecture  on  the 
wickedness  of  rebellion,  the  magnitude  of  treason, 
etc.,  during  which  unusual  proceedings,  Davis  never 
raised  his  eyes.  O'Connor  then  addressed  the  Court 
to  the  effect  that  the  defence  was  ready  for  the 
trial  of  the  case.  Evarts  then  notified  the  Court 
that  the  Government  was  not  ready  for  trial  but 
was  willing  the  accused  should  go  on  bail.  There 
upon  the  bail  bond  was  offered.  Greely  was  the 
first  to  sign  it  and  then  Schell.  Davis  went  at  once 
to  Greely,  grasped  his  hand  and  in  a  few  words 
earnestly  thanked  him.  Greely  accepted  his  thanks 
with  an  abashed  expression,  his  countenance,  how 
ever,  filled  with  an  inward  pleasure,  and  the  song 
of  his  pillow  that  night  was  like  that  of  the  Good 
Samaritan. 

When  the  bail  bond  was  fully  signed,  the  Court 
released  Davis,  and  a  mighty  shout  went  up  from 
inside  and  outside  the  court  room.  Hundreds  of 
colored  men  wished  to  take  Davis'  hand,  and  a 
mighty  mass,  cheering  and  waving  hats  escorted 
him  back  to  the  Spottswood,  and  on  entering  his 
room  it  was  redolent  with  the  scent  of  flowers,  and 
old  friends  were  there  to  give  him  their  hands. 

That  afternoon  he  and  Mrs.  Davis  drove  out  to 


256  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

Hollywood  and  placed  roses  and  violets  on  the  grave 
of  their  little  boy  who  had  been  accidentally  killed 
by  falling  from  the  upper  veranda.  A  prayer  of 
thankfulness  was  held  in  their  room,  led  by  his  old 
friend  Dr.  Minnegerode,  and  that  night  he  and 
Mrs.  Davis  started  for  Montreal,  where  the  children 
were  at  school. 

The  thoughtful  of  the  North,  and  not  few  in 
numbers,  who,  during  the  two  years  he  had  been  in 
prison  had  feared  the  results  of  a  trial  with  its 
frightful  possibilities  of  a  gallows  throwing  its 
shadow  across  the  sky  of  the  country's  past,  drew 
a  deep  sigh  of  relief  over  his  release  and  thanked 
God  that  mankind  had  outgrown  the  old  barbaric 
notion  that  the  sleep  of  the  dead,  to  be  unbroken, 
demanded  a  sacrifice. 

But  the  companions  of  vengeance,  on  whose  ears 
the  voice  of  compassion  broke  in  vain  now,  like  a 
pack  of  thwarted  timber  wolves,  set  up  a  dismal 
howl  over  the  escape  of  their  prey  and  at  once 
turned  on  Greely,  snarling  and  showing  their  teeth. 

The  President  of  the  Union  Club  of  New  York 
wrote  to  him  that  a  special  meeting  of  the  Club  had 
been  asked  for  to  take  into  consideration  his  conduct 
in  going  on  the  bail  bond  of  Davis  and  desired  to 
know  what  evening  would  be  convenient.  Greely 
at  once  replied: 

"Gentlemen:  I  shall  not  attend  your  meeting  this 
evening.  You  evidently  regard  me  as  a  weak  sen- 


HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY  257 

timentalist  misled  by  a  maudlin  philosophy.  I 
arraign  you  as  narrow-minded  blockheads  who 
would  like  to  be  useful  to  a  great  and  good  cause, 
but  do  not  know  how.  Your  attempt  to  base  a 
great  enduring  party  on  the  hate  and  wrath  neces 
sarily  engendered  by  bloody  civil  war  is  as  though 
you  should  plant  a  colony  on  an  iceberg  which  had 
somehow  drifted  into  a  tropical  sea.  I  tell  you  here 
that  out  of  a  life  earnestly  devoted  to  the  good  of 
human  kind,  your  children  will  select  my  going  to 
Richmond  and  signing  that  bail  bond  as  the  wisest 
act.  ...  So  long  as  any  is  at  heart  opposed  to  the 
National  Unity  ...  I  shall  do  my  best  to  deprive 
him  of  power.  ...  So  long  as  any  man  was  seeking 
to  overthrow  our  government  he  was  my  enemy; 
from  the  hour  in  which  he  laid  down  his  arms,  he 
was  my  formerly  erring  countryman. " 

While  Davis  was  in  prison,  Greely  was  writing 
his  " American  Conflict,"  and  the  second  volume 
was  in  press  when  he  went  on  Davis'  bail  bond; 
thereupon  thousands  of  the  subscribers  cancelled 
their  subscriptions  throwing  heavy  losses  on  his 
publishers. 

Lee  wrote  to  Davis,  June  1,  1867:  "My  dear  Mr. 
Davis:  You  can  conceive  better  than  I  can  express, 
the  misery  which  your  friends  have  suffered  from 
your  long  imprisonment.  To  none  has  this  been 
more  painful  than  to  me;  and  the  impossibility  of 
affording  relief  has  added  to  my  distress.  Your 


258  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

release  has  lifted  a  load  from  my  heart  which  I  have 
not  words  to  tell,  and  my  daily  prayer  to  the  Great 
Author  of  the  world  is  that  He  may  shield  you 
from  all  evil,  and  give  you  that  peace  which  the 
world  cannot  take  away.  That  the  rest  of  your 
days  may  be  triumphantly  happy  is  the  sincere 
and  earnest  wish  of  your  most  obedient,  faithful 
friend  and  servant. 

R.  E.  LEE." 

The  winter  climate  of  Canada  proving  too  severe 
for  Davis  in  his  weak  condition,  toward  the  end 
of  the  year,  by  advice  of  his  physician,  he  went  to 
Havana,  and  after  the  holidays  to  New  Orleans. 
The  people  thronged  to  greet  him,  giving  him  a 
reception  that  was  spontaneous  and  tender.  At 
first  in  the  furrowed  lines  of  his  face  they  saw  what 
he  had  gone  through  and  were  touched  with  sym 
pathy,  but  on  meeting  him  and  noting  the  same 
old  dignity  in  his  bearing,  the  same  noble  lustre  of 
fortitude  and  kindliness  in  his  eye,  and  his  voice 
still  keyed  with  its  courteous,  appealing  tones,  they 
gave  him  their  hands  and  cheers  that  went  to  his 
heart.  To  them  he  was  the  embodiment  of  the 
Southern  gentleman  and  the  champion  of  the  Lost 
Cause  hallowed  by  many  a  deed  of  bravery  and 
death  on  the  field. 

From  New  Orleans  he  went  to  his  old  plantation, 
now  a  scene  of  neglect,  conflagration,  waste  and 
pillage;  stables,  flower  beds,  roses  yellow  and  red, 


HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY  259 

gardens,  all  the  labors  of  his  early  life  blotted  out, 
and  desolation,  with  her  feet  in  the  ashes,  sat  at 
the  foot  of  lone  chimneys  croaking  to  the  silence  of 
the  one-time  happy  dooryard  and  blooming  cotton 
fields. 

The  aged  slaves,  who  still  clung  to  the  old  home 
quarters,  flocked  to  see  him,  glad,  truly  glad  to  take 
the  hand  of  the  proud,  kind  master  of  their  youth. 

For  the  sake  of  his  health,  he  went  to  Europe 
with  his  family  and  received  many  civilities  from 
members  of  the  English  nobility.  Could  he  go  now, 
from  the  British  officers  and  soldiers  who  served 
with  the  grandsons  of  the  Confederacy  and  the 
grandsons  of  the  Union  when  they  broke  the  German 
line  we  think  many  a  high  cheer  would  welcome 
him  and  should  Grant's  spirit  appear  at  his  side, 
applause  would  break  from  Westminster  and  where- 
ever  the  sea  strikes  the  shores  of  Old  England. 

While  in  Paris,  Napoleon  III  sent  a  staff  officer 
offering  an  audience,  but  not  wishing  to  say  anything 
uncivil,  Davis  begged  to  be  excused,  as  he  felt  that 
Napoleon  had  not  been  sincere  in  his  dealing  with 
the  Confederacy. 

On  his  return  he  accepted  the  presidency  of  a 
Southern  Life  Insurance  Company  with  headquarters 
in  Memphis,  whose  generous-hearted  people  offered 
to  buy  him  a  handsome  residence  which,  from  a 
delicate  sense  of  propriety,  he  declined,  although 
deeply  appreciating  their  liberality.  Owing  to  a 


260  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

reckless  system  of  issuing  policies  and  the  prevalence 
of  yellow  fever,  the  company  was  soon  in  trouble? 
and  after  putting  everything  he  could  command  into 
it  to  save  it,  the  company  wound  up  with  heavy 
losses  to  himself  and  stockholders. 

General  Robert  Ransom  of  North  Carolina  and 
the  Confederate  army,  in  his  "  Reminiscences  of 
Davis "  relates  the  following  incident  while  on  a 
visit  to  Davis  in  Memphis,  prefacing  it  by  stating: 
"  At  the  table  he  said  grace,  or  asked  a  blessing,  first 
seating  himself  and  then  with  bowed  head,  in  silence 
making  the  invocation. 

"  During  one  of  my  visits,  just  after  being  seated 
an  unusual  commotion  was  heard  in  the  passage 
leading  to  the  dining  room,  and  almost  instantly 
in  rushed  the  bright,  fair-haired  Willie,  his  youngest 
son,  a  lad  of  eight  or  ten  years,  followed  by  a  half- 
dozen  or  more  about  his  own  age  whom  Willie  had 
brought  in  to  dinner.  He  rapidly  told  of  some  gar 
dening  or  other  work  he  had  in  hand  and  which  he 
wished  finished  at  a  certain  time  and,  not  being 
able  to  accomplish  it  so  soon  himself,  had  gone  into 
the  streets  and  gathered  a  promiscuous  party  of 
laborers,  completed  the  task  voluntarily  assumed, 
and  now  wanted  dinner  for  his  co-workers.  I  could 
easily  discern  the  feeling  of  his  father;  with  great 
cheerfulness  and  an  expression  of  pride  and  satis 
faction,  Mr.  Davis  aided  in  providing  for  his  fine 
boy's  guests,  and  with  delicate  tact  and  discriminat- 


HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY  261 

ing  conversation  soon  had  each  little  fellow  as  com 
fortable  and  unembarrassed  as  if  on  a  picnic." 

Soon  thereafter  this  son,  William  Howell,  died 
with  diphtheria,  and  in  October,  1878,  when  the 
yellow  fever  raged  in  Memphis,  his  only  surviving 
son,  Jefferson  junior,  twenty-one  years  old  and  who 
had  become  a  companion  of  his  aged  father,  fell  a 
victim,  and  his  death  struck  deep. 

Some  time  previous,  Mrs.  Dawson,  a  friend,  had 
sold  to  Davis  her  home  at  Beauvoir,  Mississippi. 
It  had  a  broad  veranda,  flowered  approaches,  and 
stood  amid  an  open  grove  of  live  oaks  close  by  the 
shore  of  the  Gulf  lapping  its  beach  day  and  night 
with  soft  murmurs.  He  was  there  when  this  grief 
fell  upon  him,  writing  the  "Rise  and  Fall  of  the 
Confederacy."  He  laid  down  his  pen  and  for  days 
sat  in  silence  till  that  blessed  Comforter  which  feels 
for  us  all  reached  out  a  hand,  and  he  took  up  his 
pen  again. 

He  who  would  see  how  the  mind  of  Jefferson 
Davis  worked  under  the  shadow  of  grief  and  a 
raging  storm  of  calumny;  how  deep  in  it  lay  the 
foundation  of  his  belief  in  the  sovereignty  of  States; 
with  what  fairness  he  dealt  with  the  four  years  of 
battling  campaigns  in  the  discharge  of  the  duties  of 
the  Presidency,  let  him  read  the  "Rise  and  Fall  of 
the  Confederacy." 

It  was  begun  in  1878;  it  was  finished  in  1881, 
and  here  is  the  way  it  ended.  Mrs.  Davis  in  her 


262  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

" Memoirs"  says:  "It  was  four  o'clock,  and  I  had 
been  writing  since  eight  o'clock  in  the  evening,  when 
Mr.  Davis  dictated:  'In  asserting  the  right  of  seces 
sion  it  has  not  been  my  wish  to  incite  to  its  exercise. 
I  recognize  the  fact  that  the  war  showed  it  to  be 
impracticable,  but  this  did  not  prove  it  to  be  wrong; 
and  now,  that  it  may  not  be  again  attempted,  and 
the  Union  may  promote  the  general  welfare,  it  is 
needful  that  the  truth,  the  whole  truth,  should  be 
known,  so  that  crimination  and  recrimination  may 
forever  cease,  and  then  on  the  basis  of  fraternity 
and  faithful  regards  for  the  rights  of  the  States,  there 
may  be  written  on  the  arch  of  the  Union  Este 
perpetua.' 

I  looked  up  after  a  momentary  silence  to  remind 
him  that  he  had  forgotten  to  continue,  and  he 
smilingly  said,  'I  think  I  am  done.'  And  so  he 
finished  his  life's  work  for  his  Countrymen." 

In  every  great  moving  symphony  there  is  one 
impelling  note  and  bar  that  is  repeated  and 
re-repeated.  We  think  the  candor  of  this  final  state 
ment  in  the  "Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Confederacy," 
is  such  a  note  and  bar  in  the  character  of  Davis. 

A  few  years  later  in  an  address  before  the  Legis 
lature  of  Mississippi,  after  referring  to  his  boyhood 
in  the  State  and  his  ambition  to  do  something  that 
would  rebound  to  its  honor  and  glory,  he  touched 
again  that  high,  manly  chord,  saying:  "Our  people 
have  accepted  the  decree,  it  therefore  behooves  them 


HIS   LIFE   AND   PERSONALITY  263 

to  promote  the  general  welfare  of  the  Union,  to 
show  the  world  that  hereafter,  as  heretofore,  the 
patriotism  of  our  people  is  not  measured  by  line  of 
latitude  and  longitude  but  is  as  broad  as  the  obliga 
tions  they  have  assumed  and  embraces  the  whole 
of  our  ocean-bound  domain." 

Meanwhile  Southern  mothers,  wives  and  sisters 
had  established  the  touching  and  beautiful  ceremony 
of  Decoration  Day.  The  effect  of  this  ceremony 
with  its  processions  and  music,  old  veterans  in  their 
gray  uniforms,  here  and  there  a  surviving  color- 
bearer  who  had  secretly  stripped  the  flag  from  its 
staff  on  surrendering,  and  had  brought  it  forth 
marching  proudly  as  it  waved  over  him  again  on 
his  way  to  the  graves  of  his  comrades  —  all  this  was 
to  endear  the  memory  of  the  Confederacy  and  to 
lift  Davis  in  his  old  age,  to  a  throne  as  it  were,  of 
affection  and  reverence.  For  had  he  not  been  their 
intrepid  never-quailing  standard-bearer,  the  exponent 
and  representative  of  ideas  for  which  he  and  they 
had  staked  all?  The  result  was,  that  a  longing  to 
see  him  grew,  invitations  weighted  with  tenderness 
poured  in  thenceforth  to  attend  the  dedications  of 
monuments  and  celebrations  of  one  kind  and  another. 
On  one  of  these  occasions  in  addressing  delegates  of 
the  Southern  Historical  Society  at  New  Orleans,  he 
said:  uAs  for  me,  I  speak  only  for  myself,  our  Cause 
was  so  just,  so  sacred,  that  had  I  known  all  that  has 
come  to  pass,  had  I  known  what  was  to  be  inflicted 


264  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

on  me,  all  that  my  country  was  to  suffer,  I  would  do 
it  again.  If  I  be  asked,  as  is  possible,  Why  do  you 
wish  to  perpetuate  these  bitter  memories  [that  is 
the  historic  records  of  the  war],  I  say  in  no  spirit 
of  vengeance,  with  no  desire  for  vainglory,  with  no 
wish  for  sectional  exultation,  but  that  the  posterity 
of  men  such  as  I  have  described  may  rise  equal  to 
their  parents,  higher  if  possible,  and  that  the  South 
may  exhibit  for  all  time  to  come  the  noble  qualities 
which  her  sons  have  hitherto  manifested." 

In  that  same  address  he  said,  speaking  of  the 
Southern  troops:  " Throughout  the  war,  I  never 
went  into  an  army  without  finding  their  camp 
engaged  in  prayer."  Our  men  on  the  picket  line  at 
Petersburg  heard  their  hymns  and  prayers  more 
than  once  during  the  winter  of  '64-' 65. 

About  this  time  a  teacher  in  a  Southern  college 
for  girls  wrote  Davis  for  a  sentiment  at  an  exercise, 
and  he  sent  her  the  following: 

11 For  my  fellow-countrywomen: 

Be  ye  slow  to  anger,  swift  to  forgive,  and  hold 
fast  that  charity  that  raises  the  lowly  with  the  self- 
respect  that  stoops  not  to  the  haughty." 

About  this  time  too,  General  Grant  was  dying  at 
Mt.  McGregor,  and  the  Boston  Globe  asked  Davis 
to  prepare  a  criticism  on  Grant's  career.  He  replied 
declining  for  the  following  reasons: 

"  First,  General  Grant  is  dying. 

Second,  Though  he  invaded  our  Country,  it  was 


HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY  265 

with  an  open  hand,  and,  so  far  as  I  know,  he  abetted 
neither  arson,  nor  pillage,  and  has  since  the  war, 
I  believe,  shown  no  malignity  to  Confederates  either 
of  the  military  or  civil  service. 

Therefore  instead  of  seeking  to  disturb  the  quiet 
of  his  closing  hours,  I  would,  if  it  were  in  my  power, 
contribute  to  the  peace  of  his  mind  and  the  comfort 
of  his  body. 

JEFFERSON  DAVIS." 

It  will  be  remembered  that  Buckner  and  Joseph 
E.  Johnston  of  the  Confederate  army  were  pall 
bearers  at  Grant's  funeral,  a  tribute  to  his  character 
beyond  measure,  and  a  glorious  example  also  of  the 
natural  magnanimity  of  our  country  —  North  and 
South. 

As  the  fires  of  the  war  burned  down  there  was 
in  the  broad-minded  of  the  North  a  desire  to  see  and 
to  know  Mr.  Davis.  We  will  give  but  two  of  the 
many  recorded  interviews  with  him;  and  first  that 
of  Massachusetts'  greatest  all-round  man  of  his 
day,  my  friend,  Charles  Francis  Adams,  who  in 
his  autobiography  says: 

"  Recurring  to  Fessenden  and  what  he  told  me 
of  my  grandfather,  Jefferson  Davis  was  on  that 
topic  the  most  outspoken  of  all  I  met.  [He  is  relating 
incidents  of  a  visit  to  Washington  before  the  war.] 
I  do  not,  indeed,  with  the  exception  of  Joshua  R. 
Giddings,  remember  any  public  man  of  that  epoch 


266  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

who  seemed  to  feel  such  a  genuine  sense  of  apprecia 
tion  for  J.  Q.  Adams  as  Jefferson  Davis,  and  he 
repeatedly  put  himself  on  record  on  the  subject. 
Davis,  by  the  way,  impressed  me  that  winter  more 
agreeably  than  any  Southern  man  I  met.  I  did  not 
see  him  again  until  in  May,  1885,  I  called  on  him 
at  his  home  at  Beauvoir,  near  New  Orleans;  but 
to  me  he  was  a  distinctly  attractive  as  well  as 
interesting  personality.  Of  medium  height  and 
spare  figure,  he  had  an  essentially  Southern  face, 
but  he  was  very  much  of  a  gentleman  in  his  address 
-  courteous,  unpretending  and  yet  quietly  dignified. 
A  man  in  no  way  aggressive,  yet  not  to  be  trifled 
with.  I  instinctively  liked  him;  and  regret  extremely 
that  it  was  not  my  good  fortune,  then  or  later,  to 
see  more  of  him." 

McClure  in  his  " Recollections  of  Half  a  Century" 
on  a  visit  at  Beauvoir  says  that  Mr.  Davis  in  reply 
to  a  question  as  to  terms  he  might  have  offered  or 
received  to  end  the  conflict,  said:  "He  could  not  of 
his  own  motion  have  made  any  proposition  that 
did  not  involve  the  perpetuity  of  the  Confederacy." 
He  concisely  stated  the  difference  between  the 
Federal  and  the  Confederate  Governments;  that 
the  President  of  the  former  was  practically  a  sov 
ereign,  while  the  President  of  the  Confederacy 
represented  a  nation  founded  on  individual  States 
and,  as  such,  he  could  not  make  a  peace  that  denied 
their  sovereignty. 


HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY  267 

"I  shall  never  forget/'  says  McClure,  a  life-long 
Republican,  "the  earnest  and  pathetic  conclusion 
of  his  remarks  about  Lincoln,  when  he  said  sub 
stantially  'Next  to  the  failure  of  the  Confederacy, 
the  darkest  day  the  South  has  seen  was  the  day  of 
Lincoln's  assassination'." 

Such  then,  was  the  impression  Davis'  personality 
-  that  has  been  my  chief  aim  to  set  forth,  —  made 
on  two  keen,  manly  observers  who  had  fought 
against  him. 

And  now,  as  I  wish  to  hold  the  reader's  respect 
and  that  I  may  not  be  open  to  the  charge  of  delib 
erately  withholding  from  him  adverse  opinions  of 
Mr.  Davis,  let  me  give  the  severest  estimate,  con 
sidering  its  source,  that  was  ever  made  of  him. 
It  is  to  be  found  in  a  letter  from  John  A.  Campbell, 
Confederate  assistant  secretary  of  war,  written  from 
Fort  Pulaski  while  undergoing  arrest  for  complicity 
in  the  assassination  of  Lincoln,  to  Ex- Judge  B.  R. 
Curtis  of  Boston  with  whom,  before  the  war  he  had 
served  on  the  bench  of  the  United  States  Supreme 
Court.  They  had  been  fellow-democrats,  and  the 
main  and  declared  purpose  of  the  letter,  was  to 
enlist  Curtis'  influence  with  Andrew  Johnson, 
Lincoln's  successor  to  the  Presidency,  for  his  release 
on  parole  and  a  speedy  trial. 

After  a  resume  of  his  efforts  to  prevent  secession 
and  the  grounds  in  justification  for  giving  it  his 
support,  namely,  "It  appeared  to  be  a  war  upon 


268  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

the  political  and  government  within  the  Confederate 
states,"  he  went  on  to  say: 

"But  he  [Davis]  was  unfitted  to  manage  a  revol 
ution  or  to  conduct  an  administration.  Slow,  pro 
crastinating,  obstructive,  filled  with  petty  scruples 
and  doubts,  and  wanting  in  clear,  strong,  intrepid 
judgment,  a  vigorous  resolution  and  a  generous 
and  self-sacrificing  nature,  he  became  in  the  closing 
part  of  the  war,  an  incubus  and  mischief." 

Campbell  had  been,  as  stated  in  his  letter,  an 
original  and  ardent  opponent  of  secession :  convinced 
of  the  North's  overpowering  numbers  and  resources 
in  case  of  war.  To  whatsoever  degree  the  South's, 
early  victories  may  have  sapped  this  conviction, 
on  the  fall  of  Vicksburg  and  the  defeat  of  Lee  at 
Gettysburg  it  regained  full  vigor  and  soon  blew 
out  hope's  candles  of  ultimate  success.  Born  with 
delicacy  of  feeling,  long,  keen  foresight  and  haunted 
by  this  foreboding  prepossession,  it  is  easy  to 
realize  his  state  of  mind  as  the  war  -drew  on 
and  he  came  in  full  view  of  inevitable  and  utter 
defeat. 

To  him  worn,  grieved  and  hopeless,  every  hour 
the  Confederacy  lived  thereafter  was  only  a  painful 
prolongation  of  mental  agony.  "In  the  light  of 
the  inevitable,  why  in  Heaven's  name  not  ask  for 
terms?"  that,  that  we  believe  was  the  appeal  of 
his  troubled,  judicial  mind.  In  times  of  revolution 
faced  with  a  national  crisis  there  is  no  mind  so 


HIS  LIFE  AND  PERSONALITY  269 

worried  and  we  think  so  helpless  as  the  fully  devel 
oped  judicial  mind,  for  it  is  born  wingless. 

One  can  easily  see,  then,  how  Davis'  defiant, 
unconquerable  will  must  have  annoyed  and  provoked 
Mr.  Campbell  as  day  after  day  he  continued  the 
struggle.  Truly,  to  a  mind  in  the  state  of  Judge 
Campbell's,  Davis  must  have  been  "an  incubus  and 
mischief." 

But  refined,  able,  gifted  and  high-minded  as 
Mr.  Campbell  was,  and  inevitable  as  defeat  was, 
could  the  South  with  honor  and  self-respect  have 
laid  down  its  arms  and  acknowledged  defeat?  Could 
Lee's  old  army  of  Northern  Virginia  have  broken 
away,  gone  off  home  leaving  him  and  Davis  standing 
alone?  Oh  no,  no!  For  the  rearing  of  that  arch  of 
triumph  that  spans  North  and  South,  its  abutments 
on  Gettysburg  and  Appomattox,  it  was  better,  far 
better,  we  think,  that  Lee  and  his  army  should 
stand  by  Davis,  march  on  to  Appomattox  and  there 
lay  down  their  arms  in  honorable  surrender,  cheering 
Lee  when  he  returned  from  accepting  Grant's  gen 
erous  terms,  and  he  with  tears  in  his  eyes  saying 
he  had  done  the  best  he  could  for  them.  Yes,  he 
and  Davis  had  done  the  best  they  could  for  the  men 
who  had  carried  the  colors  of  the  Confederacy  on 
so  many  fields.  That  is  the  reason  why  Sherman's 
army,  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  and  the  country  at 
large  is  proud  of  the  victory  won,  a  victory  won  by 
gallant  men  over  gallant  men,  and  above  all,  the 


270  JEFFERSON   DAVIS 

fruits  of  that  victory,  that  triumphant  arch  of  good 
will,  already  spoken  of,  spanning  North  and  South. 

History  has  no  page,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  that 
equals  the  achievement  embodied  in  that  arch  by 
any  nation  in  the  world,  namely,  the  people  of  the 
sections  after  four  years  of  bitter  war,  overmatching 
their  bravery  by  becoming  friends  once  more  before 
old  age  had  whitened  the  hair  of  the  men  who  wore 
the  blue  and  the  gray. 

Next  to  Grant  I  believe  that  Davis  by  the  friend 
liness  of  his  bearing  and  candor  in  intercourse  with 
Northern  men  of  influence  and  character,  by  urging 
his  people  on  all  occasions  to  obey  the  laws,  and 
above  all  by  refraining  in  addressing  associations 
of  veterans  from  saying  anything  to  re-kindle  the 
fagots  of  animosities,  contributed  more  than  any 
one  man  to  the  accomplishment  of  that  great  national 
achievement. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 

AND  now  with  this  background  of  cadet,  army, 
plantation,  Cabinet  and  Congressional  life,  of  leader 
ship  of  the  Confederacy,  of  defeat,  all  suffused  in 
his  old  age  with  the  light  of  a  brave  integrity  and 
good  feeling  for  friend  and  foe,  he  waited  the  sunset 
of  this  mortal  life. 

About  this  time,  and  when  old  age  is  prone  to 
dwell  on  the  past,  he  wrote  the  following  letter  to 
one  of  his  former  slaves:  "Both  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Davis 
are  thankful  to  their  old  friend  Milo  Cooper  for  the 
lemons   and   for   his   congratulations.     Mr.    Davis 
passed  his  eightieth  birthday  in  good  health  and 
spirits  for  one  of  his  age,  and  is  cheered  by  the  kind 
spirit  evinced  by  so  many  friends. 
Your  friends, 
JEFFERSON  and  MRS.  DAVIS." 

When  Cooper  heard  a  few  months  later  that 
Mr.  Davis  was  dangerously  ill,  he  set  out  on  foot 
from  Florida  for  New  Orleans  to  be  by  the  bedside 
of  his  old  master. 

By  the  way,  the  explanation  for  the  friendship 
of  every  colored  man  who  had  ever  known  Davis 
may  be  found  in  the  following  incident  related  by 
the  President  of  Millsap  College,  Mississippi.  "I  got 

271 


272  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

a  lesson  in  the  treatment  of  negroes  when  I  was 
returning  South  from  Harvard.  I  stopped  in 
Washington  and  called  on  Jefferson  Davis,  then 
United  States  Senator.  We  walked  down  Pennsyl 
vania  Avenue.  Many  negroes  bowed  to  Mr.  Davis 
and  he  returned  the  bow.  He  was  a  very  polite  man. 
I  finally  said  to  him  that  I  thought  he  must  have  a 
great  many  friends  among  the  negroes.  He  replied: 
"I  cannot  allow  any  negro  to  outdo 'me  in  courtesy." 

But  indeed  there  must  have  been  something  back 
of  this  formal  courtesy  which  the  negroes'  deeply 
sympathetic  natures  had  discovered,  felt  sure  of, 
and  appreciated,  and  to  which  their  spontaneous 
testimonials  bear  witness  on  his  death  that  came 
about  in  this  way. 

During  a  visit  to  his  plantation  at  Brierfield  in 
the  last  of  November,  1889,  he  was  exposed  to  a 
cold  rain  that  brought  on  an  acute  attack  of  bron 
chitis.  He  started  at  once  for  home,  but  on  arrival 
at  New  Orleans  was  so  ill  he  was  taken  from  the 
steamboat  in  an  ambulance  to  the  home  of  Mr. 
Justice  C.  E.  Fenner. 

In  the  afternoon  of  December  6  he  was  stricken 
with  a  congestive  chill  and  began  to  sink  rapidly. 
On  Mrs.  Davis  urging  him  to  take  some  medicine 
that  his  devoted  surgeon  Dr.  Chaille,  had  prescribed, 
with  that  ever  courtesy  and  gentleness  that  marked 
his  speech  he  whispered,  "Pray  excuse  me?  I  cannot 
take  it,"  and  the  eyes  that  had  met  his  fellow  man 


HIS  LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  273 

with  respect  and  courage  closed,  and  about  midnight 
he  died. 

Meanwhile,  a  gray  mist  had  drifted  in  from  the 
Gulf,  which  from  the  veranda  at  Beauvoir  he  had 
gazed  on  so  often,  enjoying  its  murmur,  and  in  deep 
and  heavy  drops  from  live  oaks  and  late-blooming 
roses  it  dripped,  dripped  through  the  remaining 
night  hours  like  tears. 

Upon  the  announcement  of  his  death,  hands  all 
over  the  South,  associations  of  veterans,  orphans  in 
asylums,  school  children,  students  in  colleges,  began 
to  weave  chaplets  for  his  bier;  among  them  were 
those  of  his  surviving  slaves  at  Brierfield;  and  we 
think  that  not  a  wreath  that  was  woven  or  eulogy 
delivered  bore  such  testimony  to  the  kind  of  man 
he  was;  he  had  been  their  friend,  he  had  shared  the 
joys  and  the  griefs  of  their  youth;  and  as  the  memories 
and  the  friendships  of  those  bygone  days  came 
back,  their  affection  wove  them  into  the  wreath. 
The  letter  they  wrote  has  already  been  given,  but 
we  think  it  will  bear  repeating:  "  We,  the  old  servants 
and  tenants  of  our  beloved  master,  Honorable 
Jefferson  Davis,  have  cause  to  mingle  our  tears 
over  his  death,  who  was  always  so  kind  and  thought 
ful  of  our  peace  and  happiness.  We  extend  to  you 
our  humble  sympathy.  Respectfully,  your  old 
tenants  and  servants/'  Signed  by  a  dozen  or  more. 
Thornton  Montgomery,  then  a  man  of  means, 
a  son  of  Joseph  E.  Davis'  body  servant,  Ben  Mont- 


274  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

gomery,  wrote  to  Mrs.  Davis  the  day  after  her 
husband's  death,  as  follows,  from  North  Dakota, 
addressing  her  in  the  old  plantation  style: 

"Miss  Varina:  I  have  watched  with  deep  interest 
and  solicitude,  the  illness  of  Mr.  Davis  at  Brierfield, 
his  trip  down  on  the  steamer  Leathers,  and  your 
meeting  and  returning  with  him  to  the  residence 
of  Dr.  Payne  in  New  Orleans;  and  I  had  hoped  that 
with  his  great  will  power  to  sustain  him,  he  would 
recover.  But,  alas  for  human  endeavor!  an  over 
ruling  Providence  has  willed  it  otherwise.  I  appre 
ciate  your  great  loss,  and  my  heart  goes  out  to  you 
in  this  hour  of  your  deepest  affliction. 

Would  that  I  could  help  you  bear  the  burden 
that  is  yours  today.    Since  I  am  powerless  to  do  so, 
I  beg  you  to  accept  our  tenderest  sympathy. 
Your  very  obedient  servant, 

THORNTON." 

James  H.  Jones  sent  the  following  despatch  to 
the  mayor  of  New  Orleans: 

"  Raleigh,  North  Carolina 

As  the  old  body  servant  of  the  late  Jefferson  Davis, 
my  great  desire  was  to  be  the  driver  of  the  remains 
of  my  old  master  to  their  last  resting  place.  Return 
ing  too  late  to  join  the  State  Delegation  from  this 
city,  I  am  deprived  of  the  opportunity  of  showing 
my  lasting  appreciation  of  my  best  friend. 

JAMES  H.  JONES." 


HIS  LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  275 

After  funeral  services  in  a  church  —  nine  governors 
of  Southern  States  were  present,  the  battle  flag  of 
the  First  Mississippi  Rifles  that  Davis  commanded 
in  the  Mexican  War  was  on  the  right  of  the  altar  - 
conducted  by  clergymen  of  various  denominations, 
Father  Hubard,  S.  J.,  making  the  closing  prayer, 
the  body  clothed  in  Confederate  gray,  was  taken 
to  the  City  Hall  and  there  lay  in  state  under  the 
guard,  day  and  night,  of  veteran  soldiers.  On  the 
coffin  was  a  silk  Confederate  flag  and  the  sabre  he 
had  worn  in  Mexico.  It  was  estimated  that  over 
fifty  thousand  people  passed  through  the  hall,  the 
eyes  of  many  swimming  in  tears. 

In  the  afternoon  the  coffin,  surmounted  by  a 
catafalque,  its  dome  festooned  with  blended  State 
flags,  was  placed  on  a  caisson  and  drawn  by  six 
black  horses,  set  out  for  Metarie  graveyard,  escorted 
by  veterans  of  the  famous  Washington  Artillery  of 
New  Orleans  and  followed  by  a  long  procession. 
Bells  began  to  toll  and  minute  guns  to  fire.  At  the 
grave  a  choir  sang  "I  heard  a  voice  from  Heaven;" 
then,  " Ashes  to  ashes  and  dust  to  dust";  and  the 
sun  was  going  down  as  the  service  ended. 

On  the  day  of  his  funeral  all  over  the  South 
minute  guns  were  fired  and  bells  were  tolled.  Special 
services  were  held  in  Lexington,  Virginia,  where  Lee 
and  Stonewall  Jackson  lay  buried,  and  in  St.  Paul's, 
Richmond,  where  Davis  had  worshipped.  All  the 
leading  newspapers  of  the  North  devoted  editorial, 


276  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

obituary  columns  and  many,  like  the  Springfield 
Republican  and  the  New  York  Sun,  paid  feeling  and 
high  tributes. 

In  1893,  the  body  was  taken  to  Richmond,  back 
to  the  Capitol  of  the  Confederacy;  the  train  bearing 
it  stopped  on  its  way  at  his  home  at  Beauvoir,  where 
the  little  children  of  the  neighborhood  had  covered 
the  railroad  track  and  the  platform  at  the  station 
with  white  flowers.  On  the  train's  arrival  at  Mont 
gomery,  the  body  was  taken  to  the  Capitol  escorted 
by  veterans,  the  streets  thronged  and  bedecked. 
Over  the  right  hand  of  the  entrance  to  the  Capitol 
was  "  Monterey ";  over  the  left,  "Buena  Vista," 
and  in  an  arch  between  them,  in  evergreen,  was 
"He  suffered  for  us." 

As  the  train  proceeded  on  its  way  to  Richmond 
masses  of  people  met  it  at  every  station,  children 
offering  magnolia  and  yellow  jessamine  to  the 
guards.  Through  the  night  as  the  train  approached 
lonely  stations  in  the  primeval  woods,  bonfires 
greeted  it,  lit  by  dwellers  of  the  wilderness,  some  of 
whom  had  ridden  over  fifty  miles  to  pay  their 
respects. 

At  Danville  a  vast  crowd  had  gathered  in  the 
depot  and  as  the  train  came  to  a  stop,  they  sang 
"Nearer  My  God  to  Thee,  Nearer  to  Thee."  On 
its  arrival  in  Richmond,  the  coffin  was  taken  to 
the  Capitol  and  placed  facing  Houdin's  statue  of 
Washington;  thence  by  a  mighty  procession,  to 


HIS   LIFE  AND   PERSONALITY  277 

where  it  lies  in  Hollywood  on  the  banks  of  the  James. 
Reader,  here  we  must  part.  I  have  enjoyed  your 
company;  I  have  tried  to  be  fair  with  you,  for  I 
wanted  you  to  be  fair  with  him;  here  is  my  hand, 
and  farewell. 


—  . 


IOAN  DEPT. 


CIRCULATio* 


LD  21A-50m-3,'62 
(C7097slO)476B 


.  General  Library 

University  of  California 

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